PLDT Inc. said over the weekend it expects to complete a new submarine cable system by the end of the year, boosting international bandwidth capacity by five-fold.
The company said barring any construction delays due to pandemic and other travel restrictions, the Jupiter Cable system could see completion by the end of the year, increasing PLDT’s international capacity to close to 60 terabits per second, ready to scale with the growing demands for digital services.
The PLDT Group has over 10 terabits per second in capacity that runs along its 15 major international cable systems catering to the massive data traffic going in and out of the country.
This major expansion advances the Philippines standing as an ideal trans-Pacific hub connecting South East Asia to the United States. Infrastructure for international cable systems and a robust data center space are among the top factors for determining the deployment roadmap of hyperscalers.
“This further investment in subsea cables, along with the expansion of other physical infrastructures such as network towers and 5G sites, secures the future of our country in this increasingly digital world. We now have workloads that call for hyperscale data centers, and we are focusing efforts in building capacities to bring hyperscalers into the country,” said Alfredo S. Panlilio, PLDT chief revenue officer and Smart Communications president and chief executive.
“With the ecosystem that we are building”•the localization of content, combined with the telco infrastructure of PLDT and the other telcos in our VITRO data center, we enable seamless end-user experience in leading-edge proportions,” he said.
The Jupiter submarine cable will employ at least 400 Gbps wavelength division multiplex transmission technology to connect landing points in Japan, the Philippines and the United States which will also boost PLDT’s foray into more digital services including the internet of things and the roll out of 5G-powered technologies and augment fixed and mobile services.
PLDT recently secured an additional 1 tbps capacity on its Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 international cable that further boosts the connectivity links of the country to Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. PLDT also invested in the new Asia Direct Cable system that is set to be completed by end of next year and another international cable system in partnership with hyperscalers and international carriers.
These expansion plans complement the bandwidth requirements of the growing data traffic that has accelerated because of the pandemic.
PLDT has extensive participation in 14 international submarine cable systems and one terrestrial system carrying data traffic going in and out of the Philippines. These include the Asia-America Gateway, Asia-submarine Cable Express, APCN2 and South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 which are routed through PLDT’s three existing cable landing stations situated in Batangas, Daet and La Union.
Through these multiple cable routes, PLDT’s network’s ability to reroute and redirect data traffic during fiber cuts or maintenance activities ensures the seamless delivery of connectivity and services of customers despite such circumstances.