The Philippines’ largest fully integrated telecommunications company PLDT is set to further expand its network bandwidth capacity, with its participation in the construction of the newest international undersea cable system, APRICOT. Targeted to be fully operational in 2024, PLDT is investing USD 80 million in the APRICOT cable system, along with four other parties that have formed a consortium.
This project is expected to boost the telco’s network capability to service the country’s growing data traffic driven by more digital services and new technologies such as 5G, and adds to the country’s advantage to help draw in global hyperscalers expanding in the region.
The new cable system features state-of-the-art facilities featuring 400G transmission technology and multiple pairs of high-capacity optical fibers. It also features state-of-the-art submersible ROADM (reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer) employing WSS (wavelength selective switch) for a grid-less and flexible bandwidth configuration, based on SDM (Space Division Multiplexing) design. These features ensure that massive amounts of data traffic will be facilitated, creating exceptional service quality to end-users.
Slated to further augment PLDT’s international capacity for data traffic, particularly to the US and across Asia and the Pacific, the 12,000-kilometer-long cable system will have a design capacity of more than 190 Tbps connecting the Philippines to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Guam.
PLDT announced that APRICOT will assure its international and enterprise customers with sustained capacity availability and more resiliency options in support of their growing demand for data and continuing digital transformation. This likewise enhances how the Philippines connect to the rest of the world which is a big plus for global hyperscalers who are looking at the Philippines for their cloud region expansion.
(Source: PLDT)