TELECOMMUNICATIONS giant PLDT Inc. and its mobile arm, Smart Communications have assured of continued internet connectivity even with the scheduled five-day emergency maintenance activities which had been announced earlier.

The assurance came amid concerns from subscribers that the scheduled maintenance work would affect online schooling and work productivity.

PLDT said it has identified alternative cable systems to keep its connectivity “resilient.”

“Students can still do their online studies and exams, and users in homes and businesses can go about their normal internet-based activities during this time,” the company said in a statement.

In an advisory on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, PLDT and Smart announced that services “may be affected” by maintenance activities on the Asian American Gateway (AAG), one of PLDT’s international cable systems.

The maintenance activities are scheduled from 5 a.m. of Saturday, Sept. 26 to 5 a.m. of Sept. 30, Wednesday.

To minimize disruption, measures such as traffic rerouting and local caching have been adopted, PLDT said.

Local caching is a technique used to speed network access to data files.

PLDT said the measures in place will allow PLDT and Smart to still serve all customers at full capacity, during this time, by using the spare a