PLDT prepares international capacity surge with submarine cable system
PLDT, Inc. plans to increase its international capacity by five times by the end of this year through the Jupiter submarine telecommunications cable system.
Targeting completion by the end of the year, PLDT said that the project would increase its international capacity to almost 60 terabits from the current 10 terabit capacity running on its 15 major international cable systems.
PLDT said that it aims to help make the Philippines a hub connecting Southeast Asia to the United States, indicating infrastructure as a top for draw for “hyperscaler” firms, which are companies expanding cloud and networking offerings.
“We now have workloads that call for hyperscale data centers and we are focusing efforts in building capacities to bring hyperscalers into the country,” PLDT Chief Revenue Officer and Smart Communications President and Chief Executive Officcer Alfredo S. Panlilio said in a statement on Sunday.
“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.”
The Jupiter submarine cable connects landing points in Japan, Philippines, and the United States.
“There is a direct correlation between connectivity and data center deployments of hyper scalers. Determining where the growth of data centers will come from requires following where the cables terminate,” PLDT Vice-President and International Facilities Investments Management Head Gene Sanchez said.
To recall, the company in October 2017 said it would invest around P7 billion ($136.7 million) in a Trans-Pacific cable system.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Jenina P. Ibañez
