PLDT Inc. yesterday said the construction of the $75-million international submarine cable, Asia Direct Cable (ADC), has begun in Batangas and will be completed by 2023.
“Along with PLDT’s existing international submarine cable systems, the Asia Direct Cable will boost and diversify the Philippines’ connectivity within the Asian region,” Alfredo Panlilio, PLDT president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“ADC will strengthen not only PLDT’s global network, but will also further advance the country’s digitalization and growing digital economy,” added Panlilio.
Once the 9,400-kilometer subsea cable is completed, ADC will link seven international cable landing points across East and Southeast Asia from Batangas, Philippines to Tuas, Singapore; Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand; and Shantou, China.
PLDT said the target completion of all landing links is end of 2023.
The cable system will provide PLDT an additional international network capacity of at least 36 terabits per second (Tbps) for faster delivery of hyperscale data across East and Southeast Asia.
“The Asia Direct Cable will strongly bolster PLDT’s mission to make the Philippines the next hyperscaler destination in Asia-Pacific. This investment solidifies our commitment to enrich and synergize the country’s Hyperscale Ecosystem of connected digital infrastructures, such as data centers, subsea cables, domestic fiber network, 5G, cloud, and IOT,” said Jojo Gendrano, PLDT head of Enterprise Business Group.
