PLDT Expands International Submarine Cable Links Capacity

PLDT, telecoms and digital services provider, is expanding its international cable system capacity to address the growing need for overseas data connectivity.

By end-2017, the total capacity of PLDT international submarine cable links (including non-Philippines terminating) will reach 4.497 Terabits per second (Tbps). This is a nearly 140% increase in capacity from end-2015, when total capacity stood at 1.889 Tbps, the company said.

Moreover, further expansion programs to meet expected growth in demand for internet as well as other services requiring international facilities in the next two plans is expected to bring total capacity to 8.413 Tbps by end-2019.

“The build-up of our international cable system capacity is in step with the ongoing expansion of our domestic fiber transmission network. These two efforts support both our fiber to the home last-mile access and our mobile data networks. As a result, we will be progressively able to provide higher levels of internet service to more areas of the country,” said Mario G. Tamayo, PLDT and Smart SVP and head of Network Planning and Engineering.

Moreover, PLDT will further boost its capacity through its P7-billion investment in the new Trans-Pacific cable system called Jupiter which will further increase the capacity and resiliency of its direct undersea fiber links to the United States and Japan.

The new cable system is being built by a consortium of global companies that include Amazon, Facebook, SoftBank, PCCW Global and NTT Communications. With a total length of about 14,000 kilometers, it can deliver a capacity of more than 60 Tbps from the Philippines directly to the United States and Japan and will be ready for service in early 2020.

“What is noteworthy about the Jupiter cable system is its use of the ‘open cable model’, which allows PLDT to quickly increase its undersea cable capacity in order to respond to rising market needs,” said Gene Sanchez PLDT VP and head of International Network.

Sanchez explained that the consortium participants in the Jupiter cable system are acquiring the fiber cables themselves, not just a share of the system’s fiber capacity. That way, PLDT can increase the capacity of its own fiber links by investing in the terminal technologies that boost data throughput.