SEA-H2X Subsea Cable Lands in the Philippines
By Niva Yadav, Data Centre Dynamics
September 8, 2024
The SEA-H2X subsea cable has landed in the Philippines.
First reported by Developing Telecoms, broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions announced that the South-East Asia Hainan-Hong Kong Express (SEA-H2X) cable landed in Buang, La Union, on the island of Luzon.
The 5,000km cable has a design capacity of 160Tbps and when complete, will connect Hainan, China, and Hong Kong with the Philippines, Thailand, East Malaysia, and Singapore.
The cable also has options to extend to Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Malaysian peninsula.
The cable system is being built by China’s HMN Technologies.
The cable was first announced in May 2022 and was scheduled for completion this year. However, in light of problems with acquiring permits from Indonesia, the cable is now expected to be ready for service in Q1 2025.
“Ultimately, it is intended to provide superior connectivity to subscribers and businesses in the Philippines; it is seen to benefit institutions seen as large consumers of bandwidth such as outsourcing and offshore industry, including major contact centers, businesses process outsourcing providers, global financial institutions, and a host of other multinationals,” said Denis Uy, CEO of Converge ICT Solutions.
Converge is a consortium partner on the cable, alongside China Mobile, China Unicom Global, and Irix (formerly known as PP Telecom).
The Asia Link Cable (ALC) is set to land in Buang next year, while, also in the Philippines, the Bifrost cable is slated to be operational in early 2025.