Converge ICT Solutions, the broadband services provider behind the country’s first pure end-to-end fiber internet network, has been cited as the ‘Fastest Growing Fibre Internet Service Provider’ by the International Finance Awards.
Dennis Anthony Uy, President and CEO, Converge ICT Solutions and Grace Uy, Chief Resources Officer, Converge ICT Solutions.
The recognition comes from London-based global business and finance magazine, International Finance. According to the publication, Converge ICT is recognized to be true to its mission to upgrade the overall digital experience of the country. International Finance also lauded the company’s growth from the grassroots to become a budding powerhouse provider of pure end-to-end fiber internet.
Since the launch of Converge ICT’s fiber packages, the Philippines saw a steady and noticeable internet speed improvement. According to the world-renowned digital delivery network Akamai, the Philippines’ average internet speed in the third quarter of 2016 was only at 4.2Mbps. By the first quarter of 2016, the average download speed in the Philippines has increased by 135.90 percent to 18.66Mbps, Akamai reported.
One of the most recent milestones of Converge ICT is the introduction of the country’s first 400Gbps backbone to augment existing domestic network capacity. This allows 400G per channel at 64 channels or the equivalent of 25.6Tbps at capacity.
The backbone is considered a boost to major businesses and institutions such as business process outsourcing companies and financial institutions, which require high capacity connectivity or bandwidth. The rollout also allowed individual subscribers and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to enjoy faster connection without any data cap for high bandwidth capacity.
Converge ICT has received the award last January 31, 2020 at Waldorf Astoria, Bangkok, Thailand.
Alanis Morissette to be here in Manila this coming April to give you hits like Ironic! Music fans are in for a treat as seven-time GRAMMY winner Alanis Morissette returns for a one-night concert on April 6 at the Mall Of Asia Arena, celebrating 25 Years of Jagged Little Pill, her most iconic breakthrough album.
Since 1995, Alanis Morissette has been one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians in contemporary music. Her deeply expressive music and performances have earned vast critical praise. Morissette’s 1995 debut, Jagged Little Pill, was followed by nine more eclectic and acclaimed albums. She has contributed musically to theatrical releases and has acted on the big and small screen. Outside of entertainment, she is an avid supporter of female empowerment, as well as spiritual, psychological and physical wellness. In 2016, Alanis launched Conversation with Alanis Morissette, a monthly podcast that features conversations with a variety of revered authors, doctors, educators, and therapists, covering a wide range of psychosocial topics extending from spirituality to developmentalism to art. On December 5, 2019, Jagged Little Pill, The Musical, made its Broadway debut at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City. Also in December 2019, Alanis released her newest song, Reasons I Drink. The track comes off Alanis’ highly anticipated ninth album, SUCH PRETTY FORKS IN THE ROAD, due out May 1st. For more information, see www.alanis.com.
Alanis Morissette’s hits include You Oughta Know, Hand In My Pocket, Ironic, You Learn, Head Over Feet, All I Really Want, Thank U, Mary Jane, Uninvited, Perfect, Forgiven, Right Through You, Wake Up, and more.
Alanis Morissette 2020 Live In Manila is presented by Ovation Productions in cooperation with TAP Go: Stream Sports Anywhere!
Tickets go on sale starting February 5 at 12nn via www.smtickets.com and all SM Tickets outlets. For inquiries, please call (02)8470-2222 or 0917-149-5959.
Aside from using its platform as channel for monetary donations, GCash has also led an internal donation drive to further help the affected communities in Taal with its employees stepping up to help those in need.
Over the past few days, GCash encouraged its employees to donate in kind for the people that were hit by the eruption of the Taal volcano. Through the generosity and inner kindness of the GCash workforce, GCash was able to fill as much as 200 bags of donations filled with daily necessities for the people of Taal.
“One good deed creates a whole new ripple of various acts of kindness, and we at GCash are proud of our employees who willingly donated. This is a true embodiment of our vision of continuously transforming our app to a socially-significant and responsible platform,” GCash President Anthony Thomas said.
Part of the donations were handed over to partners for distribution in the evacuation centers in Batangas.
“We are encouraged by the generosity of our people and we will continue to work with our partners to further utilize the GCash app as an agent of change in these trying times,” Thomas added.
GCash for Good, the corporate social responsibility arm of GCash, launched Tulong Taal in early January to help facilitate monetary donations for humanitarian aid in the affected areas in Taal.
The donations made through the Tulong Taal campaign reached P772,048.55 in end of January, and this amount has been divided equally to each of the civic partners of GCash, namely: Philippine Red Cross, World Vision, Animal Kingdom Foundation, Ayala Foundation, the School of Deaf and Applied Studies, Hope in a Bottle, ABS-CBN Foundation, and the United Nations Children's Fund - Philippines.
Individuals have also directly sent their donations to their chosen non-government organizations. This brought the total amount of donations sent via GCash to P1.015 million. This does not include the individual donation drives that GCash users launched for the same advocacy.
“As part of our core values as an organization, we put premium in using our platform as a channel of kindness. We continue to encourage individuals to donate through the GCash app for the people affected by the Taal volcano eruption,” Thomas said.
To donate to the Tulong Taal campaign, GCash users simply have to open their apps, click on the “Pay Bills” tile, select “Others,” click on “Tulong Taal,” and input the amount they would like to contribute.
For the first time to be held in the Philippines, the 71st FIABCI World Real Estate Congress, to be on May 26-30, 2020 at Marriott Hotel, Metro Manila, Philippines.
FIABCI means Federacion Internationale des Adminstrateurs de Biens Conceils et Immobiliers, a Paris-based world real estate industry federation of over 100 national associations, 95 public and private academic institutions, 2,300 regular companies, and more than a million associate members representing over 40 real-estate-related professions in five continents comprising 72 countries, including the Philippines.
During the media conference held on February 4, Tuesday at Shangri-La Makati City, Dr. Reghis M. Romero II shared about the 71st FIABCI World Real Estate Congress, to be on May 26-30, 2020 at Marriott Hotel, Metro Manila, Philippines.
The federation is represented in the country by FIABCI Philippines, which is headed by urban masterplanner Architect Nestor S. Mangio as president, environmental entrepreneur and civic-industry leader Dr. Reghis M. Romero II as chairman, and businessman Florentino Dulalia Jr. as chairman emeritus.
Marking the staging of the 2020 congress is the turnover of FIABCI World’s presidency to Dulalia, the first Filipino to ever assume such position, thus catapulting the Philippines to leadership status in the pursuit of the federation’s global socioeconomic and environmental goals.
Enabling FIABCI members to pursue such goals are research and development, technology sharing, continuous education programs, professional networking, printed and online newsletters, sustained inter-chapter correspondence and communications, participation in world councils, and incentives through national and World Prix d’Excellence Awards at the annual World Real Estate Congress, which gathers private firms and agencies, professionals and students, national associations and institutions, and international multi-disciplinary experts and speakers to exchange knowledge, share best practices, and conduct business with each other.
For this year, the congress will be held mainly at the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel, with a total of 10,000 sqms of function space, by far the biggest in the Philippine hotel industry.
Marriott is located in the Newport City, which is just across NAIA Terminal 3 and within walking distance to Resorts World Manila’s Savoy, Hilton and Belmont hotels, where other congress events are slated and many of the delegates are to be billeted.
Constituting the congress are:
- plenary sessions,
- leadership training,
- product and services exhibits,
- general assembly,
- board and professional meetings,
- and such ticketed events as the Prix D’ Excellence, Medal Holder’s Dinner, International Young Members’ Party, Study/Social Tours, and the Gala/Farewell Dinner, each generating business networking opportunities on a global scale for local participants.
To be featured at the plenary as :
- Congress speakers are US-based National Association of Realtors president Vince Malta,
- outgoing FIABCI World president Walid Moussa, global design director Anthony Cuthbertson of Topshop London,
- a representative from Foster and Partner UK,
- president Kevin Tan of Megaworld,
- sustainable design development advocate Daniel Watch of Harvard University, among others.
Congress topics include :
- the future and leadership in real estate,
- township and urban development,
- digital technology’s huge role in transforming cities,
- insights on new and emerging industry prospects,
- investment and business opportunities, among others.
Supported by UN-Habitat, Grant Thornton, Reed Midem, and World Urban Campaign as sponsors, the 71st World Congress is being organized by FIABCI-Philippines (fiabci.phil@gmail.com; www.fiabciphilippines.org) to help put the global industry on the best track for “Urban Revolution” while generating momentum along its course.
More about on FIABCI:
Preceding this event on May 27-31, 2019 was the 70th FIABCI World Real Estate Congress at the World Trade Center in Moscow, Russia, where the local chapter walked the talk by putting up a bio-climatic greenhouse building as its headquarters.
Created in Paris in 1951, FIABCI is the world’s most representative non-political business networking organization that also holds a special consultative status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations since May 31, 1996 for overall guidance and coordination on sustainable development, or “to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.
FIABCI is also a global partner of UN-Habitat in implementing the City Prosperity Initiative (CPI) program in 400 cities worldwide through innovative approach to urban measurements, design, and formulation of policy interventions for decision makers.
Just recently, FIABCI held a business summit in Ghent, Belgium where it strongly affirmed its support to the UN for its November 4, 2016 Paris Agreement to “address climate change by keeping global temperature rise at only two percent in this century”.
All such environmental initiatives involve innovative material, structural, geological and urban planning design concepts and measures.
The innovations must be able to resist earthquakes and natural calamities, prevent depletion of natural resources, save energy, reduce carbon footprint, eliminate pollution, cope with rapid urban migration, minimize construction cost, and improve quality of life.
In effect, FIABCI members worldwide will have to bring about an ecologic, economic and ergonomic urban development, which is no less than revolutionary.
Thus, falling squarely on FIABCI’s hands is the responsibility to help make urban development cope with the challenges of climate change, global warming, rising sea levels, carbon footprints, polar shift, volcanic eruptions, splitting and converging tectonic plates, earthquakes, weather calamities, and the socioeconomic pressures from spiraling energy costs, fuel prices, and agro-industrial pollution, all impacting real estate and the quality of city life.
But being situated on the planet’s ring of fire, south of the geologically active Japan Trench and bordering the subducting Pacific plate, the earthquake-prone and volcano-dotted Philippines makes for an ideal laboratory for structural engineering and calamity-related technological studies on human settlements.
And while requiring extensive R&D activities, the same challenges can also lead to the creation of innovative construction materials and methodologies that minimize building cost and house prices, add new products and services to the supply and value chain, generate new businesses, increase real estate’s contribution to the global employment and GDP, and further promote international linkages and sharing of expertise.
Craving for some food that we love? Searching for the next best discounts and freebies? Look no further than at Pancake House and Choose to Feel Good with its new Rewards Card!
In line with its commitment to continuously deliver feel-good dining experiences through its well-loved meals, Pancake House launches this delightful treat for loyal customers and fans.
All-day diners now have even more reasons to keep coming back for the timeless and enduring homey classics that they have grown to love. With the Pancake House Rewards Card, you can access exclusive deals to enjoy along with your favorite comfort meals, any time of the year; such as an outright 10% discount for dine-in or take-out transactions worth at least Php 600.
Included in the annual subscription, cardholders can also enjoy free pancakes on their birthday month, a free House Specials Set A when they register online, and many more feel-good freebies. This special Rewards Card can be easily claimed starting on February 14, with a minimum single-receipt food purchase of PHP1,000 only.
“We are introducing the Pancake House Rewards Card as a way to show appreciation to our regular diners and to connect with them in new ways,” says Pancake House Senior Marketing Manager Cherry Hernandez.
“We hope this program gives Filipinos another reason to Choose to Feel Good every day of the year and will encourage them to come home to familiar comfort at Pancake House.”
Get the most bang for your buck whenever you dine in at any Pancake House store nationwide with the new Rewards Card!
