By Catherine Cueto

PLDT Inc. announced that they had started the initial phase of the cable construction of the $75 million Asia Direct Cable (ADC) that began in Batangas months after the launch of their Jupiter cable system.

In a statement, PLDT said that the construction of the 9,400-kilometer subsea cable has a target completion of all landing links by the end of 2023. 

Submarine fiber optic cables are among the most critical components of the internet’s infrastructure, as they serve as the global backbone connecting countries while carrying massive amounts of data that enable digital trade across the globe. 

PLDT said that when completed, ADC will link seven international cable landing points across East and Southeast Asia from Batangas, the Philippines, to Tuas, Singapore; Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand; and Shantou, China.

“Along with PLDT’s existing international submarine cable systems, the Asia Direct Cable will boost and diversify the Philippines’ connectivity within the Asian region,” PLDT President & CEO, Al Panlilio said. 

“ADC will strengthen not only PLDT’s global network, but will also further advance the country’s digitalization and growing digital economy,” he added.

The cable system will feature a minimum of 200G DWDM system per wavelength design, significantly expanding PLDT’s network bandwidth going in and out of the country. 

Once fully equipped, this will provide PLDT with an additional international network capacity of at least 36Tbps 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,” PLDT SVP & Head of Enterprise Business Group, Jojo G. Gendrano for his part said.

ADC and the recently energized Jupiter cable system will drive global data straight to and from VITRO Sta. Rosa and the rest of PLDT’s data center facilities across the country, strengthening the Philippines’ advantage as a regional strategic digital hub. 

PLDT said the interconnection between these massive infrastructures would further enrich the country’s IP ecosystem hosted in the VITRO internet exchange (VIX). 

VIX provides cloud service operators, content providers and global carriers access to the country’s massive digital-savvy consumers enabling synergies through data exchange amongst entities. 

ADC is a global consortium comprised of leading communications and technology companies, including PLDT, China Telecom, China Unicom, National Telecom, Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications, and Viettel Group. 

The upcoming activation of ADC and Apricot cable systems will increase 19 the number of international submarine cable systems of PLDT and, once fully equipped, will expand the current global network capacity of 60 Tbps to over 130 Tbps.