PLDT investing P7 billion in new cable linking Philippines to Japan and US

October 23, 2019

PLDT Inc. on Wednesday said it is investing  P7 billion in a new transpacific submarine cable that would link the Philippines to Japan and US. 

PLDT said the new undersea fiber project is called Jupiter with a consortium of global companies that include Amazon, Facebook, SoftBank, PCCW Global and NTT Communications.

Spanning 14,000 kilometers, the new undersea fiber called Jupiter will connect to PLDT’s cable landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte.

It will provide additional capacity of more than 22Tbps ( Terabytes per second) from the Philippines  to and from Japan, and 17.6Tbps to the West Coast in the US. 

The Jupiter cable system will use  an “open cable model” which will allow PLDT to increase capacity of its own fiber links by investing in the terminal technologies that boost data.

“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," said Al Panlilio, PLDT chief revenue officer. 

The new cable system is expected to be completed and operational by third quarter next year.

“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," he added. DMS