Interconnection problems

In his column of Feb. 8, 2013, Neal H. Cruz quoted unnamed “Globe officials” to insinuate that recent SMS interconnection problems between Globe on the one hand and Smart and Sun on the other were the result of Smart’s “transmission problem” and Sun’s “link congestion.”

Since Mr. Cruz did not cite officials from either Smart or  Sun in his column, please allow me to go on the record and tell the whole  story.

The best way to clear the air is to simply narrate what happened on Jan. 16, 2013, which triggered the complaints about SMS interconnection that Mr. Cruz referred to.

Shortly before lunchtime that day, engineers manning Sun’s national operations center (NOC) detected a sudden, sharp rise in the number of text messages from Sun to Globe that were being delayed or failing to arrive. When they checked, the Sun engineers found nothing wrong in the interconnection facilities between the two networks. They alerted their counterparts in Globe for the purpose of finding out the source of the problem and working together to fix it. Globe engineers said they would look into it. The situation, however, worsened.

Meanwhile, the Smart NOC discovered that text messages from Smart to Globe were encountering similar problems. And they, too, contacted their Globe counterparts.

The problem persisted up to about 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. of that day, after which the situation began to gradually normalize and text messages from Sun and Smart to Globe started to get through.

A few key facts are worth highlighting: First, despite repeated calls and e-mails from the Sun and Smart NOCs during this episode, their Globe counterparts did not provide any explanation of what happened, beyond saying that they would look into it. Second, Smart and Sun have separate interconnection links with Globe, neither of which was experiencing technical problems.

Finally, there were no disruptions in SMS traffic within Sun and Smart, and between these two networks at that time.

I think your readers can make their own conclusions.

—RAMON R. ISBERTO,
head, Public Affairs,
PLDT and Smart Communications Inc.