MANILA -PLDT Inc. received government approval to build cable landing stations that form part of its 12,000-kilometer international subsea cable project as it works on increasing data capacity in the advent of heightened digitalization.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Pangilinan-led telco said the National Telecommunications Commission had granted provisional authority to build two new cable landing stations in Baler and Davao for its Apricot cable system.
The submarine cable project, which is eyed to be completed by early 2025, provides connections to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Guam. It will increase PLDT’s international capacity to more than 130 terabits per second (Tbps).
“The Apricot cable system’s route ensures a significantly higher degree of resilience. When our Baler and Davao cable landing stations are completed, PLDT will have alternate sites facing the Pacific, making it easier to hook up to data offices in the US,” PLDT president and CEO Alfredo Panlilio said.
“These investments enable us to provide superior digital services to our consumer and enterprise customers, deliver newer technologies with our 4G, & 5G capabilities, and add value for attracting hyperscalers and investors to expand their cloud in the country,” he added.
Hyperscalers are entities providing cloud, networking and internet services such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google GCP, Alibaba AliCloud, IBM and Oracle.
The PLDT Group tripled its international capacity to 60 Tbps when it activated the US-Transpacific Jupiter cable system in July last year. The 14,000-kilometer (km) cable system links a landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte and Japan.
This year, the listed company is set to complete the construction of 9,400-km Asia Direct Cable (ADC) system, which will connect the Philippines to Tuas, Singapore; Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand, and Shantou, China.
As of the first quarter, the telco giant has a total fiber footprint of over 1.1 million km, comprising over 231,000 km of international fiber and more than 874,000 km of domestic fiber.
To complement the fiber cable projects, PLDT has been ramping up data center investments.
The telco is currently building its 11th data center, VITRO Sta. Rosa. The 50-megawatt (MW) facility is slated to go live by early next year.
Last month, PLDT announced its plan to put up a 12th data center with at least 100-MW capacity as it envisions the country to be the next hyperscaler hub in Asia.