PLDT Inc. has recently announced its plan to collaborate with potential consortium partners to launch another subsea cable project. The company aims to enhance its international data capacity to a remarkable 1,000 terabits, or 1 petabit, within the next five years.
According to Roderick Santiago, PLDT Deputy Network Head, the company is constantly looking for ways to increase its capacity based on usage. He mentioned that one of their strategies is to invest in subsea cable systems, which is likely to be finalized by early next year.
For the time being, the company is prioritizing ongoing projects, but this move towards expanding their subsea cable network is a significant step towards meeting the increasing demand for high-speed internet connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
Santiago said that the company’s ongoing projects, the Asia Direct Cable (ADC) system and Apricot submarine cable, are progressing as planned and are expected to be launched on their target dates.
The Asia Direct Cable (ADC) system, which is set to be completed this year, will connect the Philippines to several countries across East and Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and China. This subsea cable project is expected to significantly improve the delivery of data between these countries and enhance internet connectivity in the region.
ADC is a global consortium comprising PLDT, China Telecom, China Unicom, National Telecom, Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications and Viettel Group.
The Apricot submarine cable project on the other hand is expected to provide connections to several countries, including Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Guam. The project, which is set to launch in 2025, aims to increase the company’s international capacity to over 130 terabits per second (Tbps).
In July, last year, the PLDT Group tripled its international capacity to 60 Tbps when it activated the US-Transpacific Jupiter cable system. The 14,000-kilometer cable system links a landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte and Japan.