By Rappler.com
September 25, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom held a ceremonial launch for its $250-million Southeast Asia-United States (SEA-US) submarine cable system in Davao City on Friday, September 22, which the company sees will improve transmission, connectivity, and network resiliency in Mindanao and the rest of the country.
Outside of Luzon, the 14,500-kilometer undersea cable is the first direct connection of Globe to the United States via Guam, Hawaii, and California. The direct connection enables faster transmission of data to the US. Globe reported to have spent $80 million for the new undersea cable sytem.
The investment is separate from the $750-million capital expenditure of the company this year to enhance its data capacities, specifically to deploy LTE using the 700 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2600 MHz frequencies.
In the same statement, Globe also touted having established a data center in Davao City, which along with the new undersea cable system, will help in supporting the growing information and communications technology requirements of BPOs, financial institutions, Internet service providers and other content providers in Southern Philippines.
“[The undersea cable system] will enable businesses to thrive and prosper with 1st world internet connectivity at cost-efficient rates in support of the government’s efforts to make the Philippines become globally competitive. This will also make our network future-ready in anticipation of our customers’ growing bandwidth requirements,” said Ernest Cu, Globe president and CEO.
