Globe Telecom Inc., along with other investors of the Southeast Asia–US (SEA-US) Cable System, expects to complete the installation of a state-of-the-art undersea fiber optic cable network by the second quarter of 2017.
The Hermosa Beach, California shore-end last week was successfully connected.
The US Federal Communications Commission on January 12 granted the SEA-US cable landing license, while the construction of California’s cable landing station will be completed by the end of this month.
By next month, the installation vessel will arrive in Honolulu, Hawaii, after completing its main-lay construction between California and Hawaii.
The $250 million SEA-US Cable System is being constructed by NEC Corp.
When completed, the system will deliver an initial design capacity of 20 Terabit per second (Tb/s) capacity, using NEC’s state-of-the-art 100 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) technology.
The capacity will help to meet the exponentially growing demand for bandwidth between Asia and North America, while also enabling onward connectivity to existing and planned submarine cable systems.
Globe contributed $80 million for the project.
Other members of the SEA-US consortium are PT Teleckomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), Telkom USA, GTI Corp. (a member of the Globe Group of companies), Ram Telecom International, Teleguam Holdings and Hawaiian Telecom.
“By routing south of the Philippines, the SEA-US system will avoid the disaster-prone Luzon Strait and thereby enhance the continuity of communications between the United States and Asia,” Globe earlier said.
Linking five areas and territories that include Manado (Indonesia), Davao (Philippines), Piti (Guam), Oahu (Hawaii, United States) and Los Angeles (California, United States), the SEA-US project will be about 15,000 kilometers in length, providing route diversity from the North Pacific and avoiding earthquake prone areas in East Asia.
The SEA-US system will help satisfy the burgeoning demand for international connectivity not just in Indonesia and the Philippines, but also in other Southeast Asian countries.
The cable system is expected to provide more efficient connectivity to about 1.5 billion people.
Globe said it would spend about $2 billion over five years to provide the country’s households with fiber optic cables.
The company last week said it planned to tap the debt market to raise up to P20 billion within a three-year period.
The company, controlled by conglomerate Ayala Corp., said its board of directors approved the filing of a three-year shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission for up to P20 billion in principal amount of debt securities in one or more tranches.
“The purpose of which is to allow Globe within a three-year period to go to the market to offer retail bonds,” Globe corporate communications head Yolanda Crisanto said.
“Currently no decision has been made as to when this offer will take place,” she said.
Globe issued P4 billion worth of seven-year bonds and P3 billion worth of 10-year bonds in July 2013 to fund the acquisition of Bayan Telecommunications Inc., capital expenditures and debt refinancing.