PLDT joins consortium partners to build new Asia Pacific submarine cable

Telco giant PLDT has announced that the Asia Direct Cable (ADC) Consortium, of which it is a member, is building a new submarine cable connecting the Philippines, China (Hong Kong and Guangdong Province), Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The consortium has selected NEC Corporation to construct the 9,400-kilometer long ADC cable, which is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022.

The ADC cable system is expected to strengthen the resiliency of PLDT’s international network by providing additional capacity for Internet and digital services via a new route through the East and Southeast regions.

Its high capacity allows it to support increasingly bandwidth-intensive applications which are driven by technological advancements such as 5G, cloud services, the Internet-of-Things and artificial intelligence. It is also expected to enhance the capabilities of PLDT’s fiber cable network now spanning over 338,000 kilometers across the archipelago.

“The ADC will further improve PLDT’s network resiliency by strengthening its data links to Asia and the rest of the world. This will help PLDT to address the expanding demand for more digital services for both enterprises and our individual customers,” said PLDT chief revenue officer and Smart president Al S. Panlilio.

The cable will feature multiple pairs of high-capacity optical fibers and is designed to carry more than 140 Tbps of traffic, enabling high capacity transmission of data across the East and Southeast Asian regions. This will further enhance the expansion of communications networks in the region.

“Along with PLDT’s existing international submarine cable systems, Asia Direct Cable would complement to provide further diversity and resiliency to PLDT’s international network with the capability to boost the internet and data services that it provides to its customers,” said PLDT first vice president and head of international and carrier business group Kat Luna-Abelarde.

The ADC is a global consortium comprised of leading communications and technology companies, including CAT, China Telecom, China Unicom, Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications and Viettel.

Source: Newsbytes Philippines