Asia Pacific subsea cable lands in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines —  An Asia Pacific subsea cable has landed on Philippine shores, linking the country to six points of connection in the region for quicker internet speed and data transfer.

Converge ICT Solutions Inc. yesterday announced it has brought in the Philippine branch of the Southeast Asia-Hainan-Hong Kong Express Cable System (SEA-H2X), an undersea linkage boasting a design capacity of 160 Tbps.

Converge serves as the domestic contractor of the SEA-H2X and is tasked to build the necessary infrastructure to connect the Philippines to the project.

The SEA-H2X has located its landing point in the Philippines in Bauang, La Union. Overseas, it is hooked to China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, piling up six landing points across Asia Pacific.

Subsea cables like SEA-H2X enable direct linkage for data transfer among the economies within their network. As such, these projects increase the capacity of a country for receiving data from international sites, leading to improved connectivity to the benefit of consumers and businesses.

Converge CEO and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy said his company is determined to expand its infrastructure capability to prepare for connectivity demand of as far as 15 years.

“Building up Converge’s international cabling capacity has always been a long-term investment and today, we see a major development on that front,” Uy said.

“As early as now, we are preparing for the region’s capacity needs, as far ahead as 10 years to 15 years down the road,” he added.

The SEA-H2X runs for more than 5,000 kilometers and it is scheduled for completion within the year. Converge works with China Mobile International Ltd., China Unicom Global. and AP SEA H2X Sdn. Bhd. in the consortium building the project.

Converge is also co-developing another subsea linkage, the Bifrost Cable System, which extends for at least 19,000 kilometers between Singapore and the US. Bifrost promises a system capacity of 10.4 Tbps and is expected to play a crucial role in Asia Pacific data exchange.

As of June, Converge has spent P4.7 billion for its capital expenditures, mainly for infrastructure expansion and low-cost rollout, as it aims to take up a larger share in the broadband market.

However, the company expects more spending in the second semester to pay for the progress of its subsea cables in Bifrost and SEA-H2X.