Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. plans to build a $40-million cable landing station in Mindanao that will be linked to the US and Japan.
Eric Alberto, executive vice president of PLDT and president and chief executive of ePLDT, told reporters the new cable landing facility in Mindanao would be funded by a consortium of telecom companies in the region.
“We’re looking at variety of consortium with the Indonesian, Brunei and Malaysian telcos that want to partner with us,” Alberto said.
“We have two to three options, just finding or what is the feasible for us,” he added.
PLDT currently has cable landing stations in Batangas, La Union and Daet in Camarines Norte.
PLDT’s first international cable is the $550-million Asia-America Gateway, a 20,000-kilometer high-bandwidth optical fiber linking Southeast Asia to the US. PLDT contributed $50 million to the project.
The AAG consortium consists of 19 parties providing connectivity among the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR, Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast.
The facility also supplies seamless interconnection with other major cable systems connecting Europe, Australia, other parts of Asia and Africa and using dense wavelength division multiplexing technology to provide upgradeable, future-proof transmission facilities for telecommunications traffic.
PLDT leads the country among providers with the most number of international cables as well as landing stations.
The AAG cable will be PLDT’s fourth international cable link up for upgrade to 100G technology, following the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 and the Japan-US Cable system. The Asia Submarine Cable Express 100G upgrade is ongoing.
PLDT is also the first network operator in the Philippines to deploy 100G in its domestic fiber optic network.
PLDT Home Fibr recently launched the country’s first and fastest broadband at 1 gigabyte per second.
PLDT HOME Fibr runs on fiber-optic technology which is touted as the world standard for broadband making it capable to deliver the country’s fastest plan.
PLDT’s most robust and widest reach of fiber-to-the-home facility spans to 100,000 kilometers nationwide enabling it to provide the digital lifestyle needs of Filipino homes.
PLDT Home Fibr also upgraded the speeds of all its plans from a minimum speed of 8 Mbps to 20 Mbps, all the way up to the 100 Mbps plan which was boosted to 200 Mbps.
“These massive speed boosts and the new symmetrical speeds combined with our unparalleled offers let our subscribers experience the ultimate digital lifestyle at the comforts of their home. As the country’s most powerful broadband, PLDT HOME Fibr stands firm on its commitment to provide topnotch services for its consumers, reinforcing the strongest connections at home,” PLDT Home vice president and Home marketing director Gary Dujali said.
