PLDT Inc. said it expects to double its capacity by next year with the completion of a new international submarine cable system to meet the rising data traffic overseas. 

“PLDT will double its capacity by 2021 to over 20.5 Tbit/s with the upgrade of its existing cable systems and the completion of the new JUPITER cable system,”  PLDT Chief Technology and Information Adviser Joachim Horn said.

PLDT invested early P7 billion to the new undersea fiber called Jupiter spearheaded by a consortium of global companies that include Amazon, Facebook, SoftBank, PCCW Global and NTT Communications.

Spanning 14,000 kilometers, the new undersea fiber will connect to PLDT’s cable landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte and will provide additional capacity of more than 22 tera bits per second from the Philippines directly to and from Japan, and 17.6 Tbps to the West Coast in the US. 

“PLDT has also invested in the new Asia Direct Cable (ADC) to be completed by end of 2022 with a capacity of 4 Tbps. We expect these expansions to address the rapidly rising data traffic overseas” Horn added.

PLDT  has extensive participation in 15 consortiums of international cable systems carrying data traffic going in and out of the Philippines which includes the more recent Asia-America Gateway (AAG), Asia-submarine Cable Express (ASE), Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2), and South East Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 3 (SMW3), among others to enable connectivity for all its customers.  

Traversing thousands of kilometers along ocean sea beds that carry internet traffic, these multiple cable routes augment the network’s ability to reroute and redirect data traffic, making the PLDT network resilient and redundant, and ensuring continuous operations and connectivity amid fiber cuts or maintenance activities.

“PLDT operates three existing cable landing stations for its international data network which are situated in Batangas, Daet, and La Union. Moreover, PLDT has invested in 14 international submarine cable systems and one international terrestrial cable system with current capacity of over 10 Terabit per second (Tbps) terminating in the Philippines,” Horn said.

“PLDT is continuously upgrading this capacity ahead of demand to ensure the network is ready for the massive growth in data traffic, especially during unexpected situations such as this pandemic,” he added.