DIGITAL services provider PLDT Inc. will effectively increase its international data capacity by the third quarter of 2020, when its latest undersea fiber-optic cable system called Jupiter is set to be completed.
Alfred S. Panlilio, who sits as the chief revenue officer of PLDT, said the company has “finalized the technical and management agreements” with its consortium partners for Jupiter, a fiber link to the United States and Japan that will cost the company a whopping P7 billion.
“This project will enable us to further improve the capacity and resilience of the country’s international connectivity and, thus, continue to deliver unparalleled world-class Internet service to our customers,” he said. Jupiter spans 14,000 kilometers from its Philippine landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte, eastward to Japan and westward to the US. It will add 22Tbps of capacity for the eastern segment, and another 17.6Tbps for its western section.
“This investment is of strategic importance given that a significant amount of content are downloaded by data users from servers abroad, particularly from the United States and Japan,” Panlilio said.
Jupiter uses an “open cable model,” which allows consortium members to increase their capacities by investing in terminal technologies that boost data throughput, depending on the demand from the consumer side.
“This new model in constructing international cable systems will allow us to be more agile and responsive to the needs of our customers,” PLDT Vice President for International Submarine Cable Networks Genero C. Sanchez explained.
Consortium members for Jupiter include Amazon, Facebook, SoftBank, PCCW Global and NTT Communications.
“Jupiter not only provides increased capacity going to business-relevant markets, it, likewise, adds strategic diversity options out of multiple international cable system routes and cable landing stations which businesses can choose from,” Juan Victor I. Hernandez, who heads the company’s enterprise business, noted.
Aside from Jupiter, PLDT also studies two new international cable systems to further increase its capacity through 2023. The BusinessMirror earlier reported that the two systems will link the Philippines easterly from Davao and Baler to Singapore and Japan via Indonesia, and westerly from Batangas to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.
Including Jupiter, PLDT currently has a network of 17 international cable systems, some of which will be retired in the next few years, as they have already maxed out their capacities.