PLDT Inc. is set to triple its international capacity with the activation of the US-Transpacific Jupiter Cable system by July.
The Jupiter Cable system spans 14,000 kilometers from the US West Coast, Japan and links the country to the landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte.
PLDT said this brings its total number of international cabling systems to 17, the most number of Philippine-terminating cables among telcos.
The addition of the Jupiter Cable system to PLDT’s infrastructure boosts its fiber network, providing greater capacity in multiple terabits per second to customers as well as cable diversity to ensure ability to re-route traffic in the event of undersea cable cuts.
“Investments on infrastructure like Jupiter allow PLDT to provide the vital connectivity that powers our digital economy, enabling us to help transform the country into a globally competitive and digitally-empowered nation,” said Jojo Gendrano, PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. head of enterprise business group.
“Specifically, this will fortify the Philippines’ position as the next strategic data center hub for global hyperscalers,” Gendrano added.
Submarine fiber optic cables are among the most critical components of the internet’s infrastructure, as they serve as the global backbone connecting countries, carrying communications and enabling e-commerce and the information age.
PLDT said its investment in the Jupiter Cable system increases and reinforces the capacities and the resiliency of its existing undersea fiber links, to deliver massive amounts of data traffic going in and out of the country to the US.
Jupiter uses an “open cable model” which allows consortium members to increase their capacities as needed by investing in technologies that boost data throughput. This means that by integrating advanced submarine line terminal facility, PLDT can scale up Jupiter’s capacity even as global data traffic grows rapidly and exponentially.
Currently already the largest among Philippine telcos, Jupiter is anticipated to increase PLDT’s international capacity of 20 Terabit/s to about 60 Terabit/s to US and Japan further establishing its lead, and ready to scale with the growing demands of digital services.
These include the delivery of cloud services, fintech and rich media content, which seamlessly complements PLDT’s existing fixed and mobile services, the telco said.
Currently, PLDT operates the country’s most extensive international submarine cable network and is set to expand further with the completion of two more major international cable systems — Asia Direct Cable and APRICOT cable system — set to be completed in the next two years. – Myla Iglesias
