PLDT Inc. said Wednesday it secured a provisional authority from the National Telecommunications Commission to construct two new cable landing stations in the country that will host the Apricot cable system, the newest Intra-Asia submarine cable strategically facing the Pacific side of the Philippines.
The construction of the cable landing stations in Baler, Aurora in the northeast, and in Digos, Davao in the southern coastal borders of the country provides telco carriers new alternate routes which do not traverse the usual West Philippine Sea waters.
Targeted to be completed by early 2025, these new cable landing facilities will further fortify PLDT’s international cable network to deliver higher speeds, lower latency connectivity in and out of the Philippines, and add resiliency to its existing landing stations in Batangas, La Union and Daet.
“The Apricot cable system’s route ensures a significantly higher degree of resilience. When our Baler and Davao cable landing stations are completed, PLDT will have alternate sites facing the Pacific, making it easier to hook up to data offices in the US,” PLDT and Smart president and chief executive Alfredo Panlilio said.
The completion of the Apricot cable system by end of 2025 will further augment PLDT’s international capacity for data traffic – particularly to the US and across Asia and the Pacific – and raise PLDT’s total international capacity to more than 140Tbps once fully equipped.
The 12,000-kilometer-long cable system will connect the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Guam.
“As we help position the Philippines as the new hyperscaler destination and major transit hub in Asia, we continue to upgrade and build on the foundations of PLDT’s global network infrastructure,” Panlilio said.
“These investments enable us to provide superior digital services to our consumer and enterprise customers, deliver newer technologies with our 4G, & 5G capabilities, and add value for attracting hyperscalers and investors to expand their cloud in the country,” he said.
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