PLDT starts construction of Asia Direct Cable, touts additional 36Tbps capacity

PLDT Inc. on Monday started the construction of the 9,400-kilometer subsea Asia Direct Cable (ADC) which will link Batangas to several landing points across East and Southeast Asia.

In a disclosure to the local bourse, PLDT said the completion of all landing links is targeted by the end of 2023, covering Batangas; Singapore; Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand; and Shantou, China.

The ADC will feature a minimum of 200G dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) design, which PLDT said would provide it an additional network capacity of at least 36 Terabits per second for delivery of hyperscale data.

“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 and 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.

ADC is a global consortium made up of firms including PLDT, China Telecom, China Unicom, National Telecom, Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications, and Viettel Group.

PLDT said the ADC, along with the Jupiter Cable System activated in July, will drive global data from VITRO Sta. Rosa and the rest of its data center facilities across the country.

Once activated, the ADC and the Apricot cable systems will boost the current international network capacity to over 130 Terabits per second (Tbps) from the current 60 Tbps.

“The Asia Direct Cable will strongly bolster PLDT’s mission to make the Philippines the next hyperscaler destination in Asia-Pacific,” PLDT SVP and head of Enterprise Business Group Jojo Gendrano said.

“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,” he added.

The Pangilinan Group in 2020 said it was working to build three more landing stations in the next three years, including the Apricot cable system.—AOL, GMA News