PLDT to Build Two New International Submarine Cables As Data Use Booms
By Lorenz S. Marasigan, BusinessMirror
September 9, 2019
DIGITAL services provider PLDT Inc. plans to build two new international submarine cables to further beef up its global cabling capacity, as it anticipates the boom in data usage in the Philippines to persist over the next few years with the continued growth of the digital economy.
Genaro C. Sanchez, the company’s vice president for intentional networks, said his group will add two more international cable systems in its portfolio to complement the one currently being built in the Transpacific region. “We have embarked on transforming our infrastructure. Some of the cables now landed in the Philippines need upgrading because they only have roughly 25 years of service life. We have three projects lined up,” he told the BusinessMirror on the sidelines of the Asian Carriers Conference in Cebu last week.
Among the three that he mentioned, one is already being built, dubbed Jupiter. It is a fiber-optic submarine-cable system with a total length of approximately 14,000 kilometers. It will employ wavelength-selectable switch technology and is being built based on the “open cable” model.
It can deliver a capacity of more than 60Tbps from the Philippines to Japan and the US directly. It will be ready for service in early-2020.
The two others, Sanchez said, will be linking the Philippines easterly and westerly.
“For the two other projects, we have yet to sign the construction and maintenance agreement. Our position is to sign it in October or November,” he said.
The eastern link will connect Davao and Baler to Singapore and Japan via Indonesia. This will be built by 2022.
On the other hand, the western link will have a cable landing system in Batangas, which will be linked to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand. It will also have branches in Indonesia and Cambodia. This will be built by 2023.