Converge ICT wants more submarine cable, data center projects

Converge ICT Solutions Inc. sees the need to invest in additional infrastructures such as undersea cable systems and data centers in order to address the growing need for connectivity.

Jesus Romero, Converge chief operations officer, told reporters they were in talks with “a lot of parties” about potential investments that could beef up their data capacity.

“I think two cables will not be enough. We are still looking at further investments as they come along,” he said.

He was referring to the Bifrost Cable System and South East Asia Hainan-Hong Kong Express Cable System (SEA-H2X) projects.

The 15,000-kilometer (km) Bifrost, Converge’s venture with Keppel Midgard Holdings Pte. Ltd., will connect the Philippines to Singapore, Indonesia, Guam and the west coast of North America. Expected to go live by 2024, the submarine cable has a design capacity of up to 15 terabits per second (Tbps).

The 5,000-km SEA-H2X, which has a design capacity of 160 Tbps, covers the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, East Malaysia and Singapore. Converge tapped HMN Technologies Co. Ltd. to build the subsea cable, which is also eyed for operations by 2024.

As for data centers, Romero said they were “seriously looking at it.”

“There are obviously parties who are talking to us, wanting to partner … I think, personally, the boom will happen when open cable systems go live,” he added.

Currently, Converge is building a P1-billion data center in Cebu that has around 300 racks. It is set to open by the third quarter of 2024.