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.
This will 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. Targeted to be fully operational in 2024, PLDT is investing US$80 million (Php 3.9 Billion) in the APRICOT cable system, along with four other parties that have formed a consortium.
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 design capacity of more than 190Tbps connecting the Philippines to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Guam.
The APRICOT cable project will further serve PLDT Group's fixed and wireless subscribers on the consumer level, and its large enterprise client base which are already connected by its extensive fiber footprint, which spans more than 524,000 kilometers as of August2021.
The APRICOT Cable project is the third international cable network system announced by the PLDT Group in the last two years, which when completed would bring PLDT’s participation in 18 international cable systems.
Alfredo S. Panlilio, President and CEO, PLDT and Smart Communications
We continue to invest in international submarine cable systems, which are necessary infrastructure for global communications supporting ICT services. The construction of this APRICOT cable system is vital to the Philippine economy with rapidly increasing data traffic and is aligned with our efforts to make the Philippines a strategic data center hub in the region.
Jovy I. Hernandez, ePLDT President and CEO and SVP and Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups
APRICOT assures our international and enterprise customers with sustained capacity availability and more resiliency options in support of their growing demand for data and continuing digital transformation.
