With new submarine cable, PLDT boosts int’l data capacity by 33%
MANILA, Philippines — PLDT Inc. expanded its data capacity with the completion of Apricot submarine cable system in Aurora and Davao, allowing it to serve the customers who have been increasing their use of digital platforms.
In a statement on Wednesday, the telco giant said the submarine cable project would ramp up its international data capacity by 33 percent to more than 140 terabits per second (Tbps).
The 12,000-kilometer (km) fiber optic cable project links the Philippines to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Guam.
“Through initiatives like this, we continue to accelerate high-capacity data services, meeting the region’s growing demand for cloud, e-commerce and content delivery,” PLDT senior vice president and head of enterprise business group Jojo Gendrano said.
“Aside from supporting international data traffic, the Apricot cable system’s route also provides resiliency to PLDT’s domestic network between Luzon and Mindanao,” PLDT chief operating officer Butch Jimenez added.
READ: PLDT joins Google, Facebook in new submarine cable via $80-M investment
Asia Direct Cable
This quarter, PLDT is also set to start operating the 10,000-km Asia Direct Cable (ADC) project, which covers East and Southeast Asia.
From the Philippines, ADC will be connected to Tuas, Singapore; Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand; and Shantou, China.
The PLDT Group tripled its international capacity to 60 Tbps when it activated the US-Transpacific Jupiter cable system in July 2022. The 14,000-km cable system links a landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte and Japan.
To complement these infrastructure projects, PLDT has also been investing in data centers, which are hubs that house critical servers and networks.
PLDT activated its 11th data center in July last year, which has been designed to support artificial intelligence workload.
The Manuel V. Pangilinan-led company earmarked P68 billion to P73 billion in capital expenditures this year, which was lower compared with what it had spent in 2024 at P78.2 billion.
READ: PLDT gets gov’t OK to build 2 cable landing stations
The telco giant plans to build new cell sites, upgrade existing facilities and deploy home fiber ports, in addition to submarine cable systems and data centers.
