PLDT Inc. has announced the building of a 9,400-kilometer undersea cable that will connect the telco to an international cable network spanning East and Southeast Asia.
According to a report made to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, the initial phase of construction of the $75 million Asia Direct Cable would take place in Batangas. This follows the deployment of the Jupiter cable system by the telecom.
The Pangilinan-led telecom stated that all landing links will be completed by the end of 2023. The project will provide PLDT with at least 36 Terabytes per second of international network capacity, enabling higher speeds for hyperscale data transmission across East and Southeast Asia.
“Along with PLDT’s existing international submarine cable systems, the Asia Direct Cable will boost and diversify the Philippines’ connectivity within the Asian region,” said Al Panlilio, company president & chief executive officer.
Submarine fiber optic cables are critical components of internet infrastructure. Consumers and businesses in the Philippines have long been subjected to subpar internet bandwidth speeds from service providers, despite the fact that subscriptions are nearly as expensive as those in wealthy countries.
PLDT, on the other hand, stated that the activation of the ADC and Apricot cable systems will bring its international cable system to 19. This move would also increase the capacity of PLDT’s international network from 60 Tbps to 130 Tbps.
PLDT, China Telecom, China Unicom, National Telecom, Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications, and Viettel Group compose ADC.
When completed, ADC will connect to seven international cable landing locations, according to PLDT. Tuas, Singapore; Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand; and Shantou, China will be the locations of these points.