Globe picked as Philippines partner for Malaysia-US cable system

MANILA, Philippines — Globe Telecom Inc. will serve as the Philippine partner for an undersea cable system that would run for more than 19,000 kilometers from Malaysia to the US.

Hexa Capital Consultancy PLT yesterday identified Globe as the landing party for the Philippine segment of the Malaysia-US (MYUS) Cable System.

Hexa, which owns MYUS, said Globe would be assigned to put up in Davao City the landing station for the underwater cable.

MYUS will be built with 16 fiber pairs along its backbone, and the infrastructure is scheduled to be finished by 2028. MYUS will provide the first direct fiber connectivity between Malaysia and the US, improving the speed of data transfer in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

The backbone will begin from the Malaysian Peninsula near Sedili and will cross to Davao and the US territory of Guam. The cable will travel onward to the landing station in Florence, Oregon, which is run by Alaska Communications.

In its path, the MYUS will connect to Batam, Jakarta and Balikpapan in Indonesia.

Hexa founder and CEO Azhari Abang Hadari said the subsea cable would accommodate mainly the connectivity demands of large-scale hyperscalers, state agencies and network providers.

Moreover, Azhari said MYUS would take on a route that avoids the disputed waters in Southeast Asia to ensure its operational sustainability.

Hexa selected Globe as its Philippine partner for MYUS as it expressed confidence the telco can deliver its part on time and efficiently. Azhari cited Globe’s experience in putting up telco infrastructure such as the Philippine Domestic Submarine Cable Network (PDSCN) as one of the basis for teaming up with the telco.

Globe is part of the consortium that built the $150 million PDSCN. The project, jointly built with Eastern Communications and InfiniVAN Inc., is the longest subsea cable in the Philippines, as it stretches for over 2,500 kilometers across the archipelago.

MYUS boasts a minimum capacity of 15 terabits per second, and the project is estimated to cost $720 million.

In 2023 the US Trade and Development Agency awarded a financing grant to Hexa to support its initiative to connect Southeast Asia and the US by way of Malaysia.