Converge starts construction of Philippine landing station of trans-Pacific subsea cable system

Fiber internet service provider Converge ICT Solutions Inc. on Thursday broke ground the site for the Philippine cable landing station of the trans-Pacific subsea Bifrost Cable System project.

In a statement, Converge ICT said the cable landing station in Talomo district, Davao City will be the company’s fully owned and operated cable landing station.

The 745-square meter facility would be the Philippine branch of the Bifrost Cable System.

The Bifrost cable system is a new trans-Pacific cable system connecting Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, to the West Coast of North America.

Expected to be completed in 2024 and spanning over 15,000 kilometers, cable system is the world’s first subsea cable system that directly connects Singapore to the west coast of North America via Indonesia through the Java Sea and Celebes Sea.

The consortium behind Bifrost includes Keppel Midgard Holdings Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Limited (Keppel T&T), Meta, and PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), a subsidiary of PT Telkom Indonesia.

In 2021, Converge ICT signed an agreement with Keppel T&T granting the company one fiber pair on the main trunk of Bifrost Cable System.

“Today, we are breaking ground on a significant infrastructure that will bring about greater internet speeds and an overall better digital experience for Filipinos in the future. The Philippine branch of the Bifrost Cable System will be landing here in Davao and as such, we’ll be bringing in the capacity and bandwidth of Bifrost to our domestic networks,” said Converge CEO and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy.

“Our investment in this land-based infrastructure is in line with our goal to make the Philippines a digital hub in Asia. Our country is in a prime location in the center of the region for intra and inter-Asian connectivity, so that's why we are investing in different submarine cables. This will not only boost the company’s international bandwidth capacity, but for the Philippines, it will mean redundancy and diversity in network infrastructure,” said Converge ICT chief operations officer, Jesus Romero.

Prior to the groundbreaking ceremony, executives from Converge ICT and Keppel T&T made a courtesy call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

Marcos said the partnership between fiber internet service providers Converge ICT and Keppel T&T is expected to boost the country’s Wi-Fi connectivity. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News