Southeast Asia-China telecom cable reaches Philippines

Converge ICT Solutions Inc. and its partners are on track to activate next year the South-East Asia Hainan-Hong Kong Express (SEA-H2X) subsea fiber backbone, which has finally reached its landing point in the Philippines.

In a statement on Thursday, the fiber broadband provider said that the international cable network had made its landfall in Bauang, La Union.

The 5,000-kilometer cable system, which has a design capacity of 160 terabits per second (Tbps), links six markets including Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

READ: More subscribers push up Converge income by 24%

Fiber optic systems like this, which are laid down on the ocean floor, enable the rapid flow of data across the digital highways that have become busier as more individuals turn to online platforms for several tasks, including work and study.

“Building up the Converge international cabling capacity has always been a long-term investment and today, we see a major development on that front,” company CEO and cofounder Dennis Uy said in a joint statement.

The increased fiber capacity is envisioned to support the rising data requirements from several industries such as contact centers, business process outsourcing service providers, global financial institutions and multinational companies.

For this project, Converge is working with China Mobile International Ltd., China United Network Communications Group Company Ltd. (or CU) and AP SEA H2X Sdn. Bhd. Meanwhile, HMN Technologies Ltd. was tapped to build the cable system.

“As an important large-bandwidth submarine system in the region, SEA-H2X will further upgrade connectivity to Hong Kong SAR (special administrative region), Hainan SEZ (special economic zone) and Southeast Asia countries, boosting unimpeded trade, communication [and] financial integration along the route,” CU chair and president Meng Shusen said.

READ: Robust internet demand boosts Converge income

Apart from SEA-H2X, Converge is also building the 15,000-km BiFrost Cable System, which will connect the Philippines to Singapore, Indonesia, Guam and the west coast of North America.

This project, the capacity of which is up to 15 Tbps, is expected to be finished by next year.

Converge is also working on its second joint fiber optic network project with Globe Telecom Inc. which links Tacloban and Maasin via Baybay in Leyte. This 209-km fiber project is set to be completed this year.

For 2024, the internet service provider has earmarked P12 billion to P14 billion for subsea cable projects and other expenses.

Last month, Converge announced it had started building two new data centers in Metro Manila and Pampanga in response to the growing demand for facilities that house critical IT servers.

These two hubs, which are set to switch on next year, will have a combined capacity of 1,500 racks. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad