Leading Philippine telecoms provider PLDT has revealed it more than doubled its international bandwidth capacity with the completion of the $400-million Asia Submarine-Cable Express (ASE) optical fiber cable system on August 10.
A project undertaken by PLDT in partnership with several other major Asian telecom firms, the 7,200-kilometer undersea cable network uses 40 Gigabits per second (Gbps) technology that is upgradeable to 100 Gbps, with a minimum design capacity of 15 Terabits. PLDT’s share in the investment is $55 million.
“This is the largest-capacity international submarine cable system ever to land in the Philippines,” said PLDT President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno. “It is also the most secure.”
With its landing station at Daet, Camarines Norte, the ASE provides the first and only direct cable connection from the Philippines to Japan that avoids the earthquake-prone seas south of Taiwan which the cable systems of other carriers pass through.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake off the southwest coast of Taiwan in December 2006 damaged several undersea cables, disrupting telecoms services in several Asian countries, including the Philippines.
“The ASE cable system thus significantly raises the resiliency of the country’s international communications links and is expected to enhance the country’s global competitiveness in attracting investments for business process outsourcing industries (BPOs) and other ventures at a time when investor interest in the Philippines is on the upswing,” Nazareno added.
The ASE system initially links Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore through a fiber optic cable. In the next phases, it can be expanded to other economically vibrant Asian countries, such as China, Vietnam and Indonesia. The ASE can also be connected to other major cable systems to Europe, the Middle East, the other parts of Asia, and the United States of America.
Among the members of the ASE consortium are NTT Com of Japan, StarHub of Singapore, and TM of Malaysia. The submarine cable system was supplied by NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd.