PLDT splashes out on key subsea cable routes

• Some 12,000km of subsea cable, dubbed Apricot, is being deployed to connect multiple markets in Asia, including the Philippines
• The build provides telco PLDT with much needed international network capacity and critical route diversity as a hedge against cable cutting by bad actors, earthquakes and inclement weather
• The ultimate aim is to make the Philippines a major regional data hub

Philippines telco PLDT has finished an important stage in its ongoing programme of subsea network expansion by completing the cable laying for key branches of the Apricot cable system at two landing points on the archipelago – one station at Baler on the east coast of Luzon in the north, and the second at Digos in the Davao region of the southern island of Mindanao.

The two cable landings are a significant step forward for the Philippines’ dominant telco, which is investing in submarine network capacity in the face of continuing national and regional bandwidth demand.

The Apricot cable system runs from Singapore to Japan along a main trunk that stretches 8,232km with 12 fibre pairs. On the route between the two countries, there are a number of branches that connect to Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam and Taiwan (for the full picture see this network map).

With respect to the branches that PLDT has landed in the Philippines, the 479km branch to Baler has 15 fibre pairs, of which the telco owns two fibre pairs (Meta owns seven and Google six), while the 181km branch to Digos has four fibre pairs, with PLDT and Meta each owning two. 

Each fibre pair supports capacity of up to 17.6 Tbit/s and, according to PLDT, the planned capacity on the Apricot branch routes to the Philippines will increase its international network capacity by around a third to reach a total of about 140 Tbit/s. 

“Our continued investment in our network, including our international submarine cable systems like Apricot, are part of our enduring commitment to ensure the success of our partners, boost the economy by propelling the country’s digitalisation aspirations, and help position the Philippines as a strategic datacentre hub in Asia Pacific,” stated Jojo Gendrano, senior VP and head of the Enterprise Business Group at PLDT. “With these advancements, the Philippines is primed to support next-generation technologies like 5G, IoT, and AI, elevating digital experiences for enterprises and consumers alike,” Gendrano added. 

Butch Jimenez, chief operating officer at PLDT, added: “International submarine cable systems are vital network infrastructure that are essential in supporting the exponential growth of data traffic brought about by the increasingly digital lifestyles of Filipinos. Aside from supporting international data traffic, the Apricot cable system’s route also provides resiliency to PLDT’s domestic network between Luzon and Mindanao,” added Jimenez.  

Like its south-east Asia telco peers, PLDT wants to build out its network to meet both domestic and global connectivity needs and, being a nation of 114 million people and more than 7,600 islands, that means focusing on submarine cable infrastructure with the ultimate goal of assisting the country with its aims to become an important regional data hub. 

Just as importantly, a steady increase in fibre cable routes will, by delivering more capacity and greater route diversity, increase the country’s data security at a time of growing trade and industrial rivalry. PLDT noted that with its route running to the east of the archipelago, the “Apricot cable system gives telecommunication companies alternate routes that do not traverse the usual West Philippine Sea waters,” thus avoiding both the earthquake-prone Luzon Strait as well as adjacency to the South China Sea, a very busy naval area and one that is giving rise to infrastructure security concerns – see Subsea cable-cutting anxiety mounts in Asia.

News of the Apricot branch route deployments comes only weeks after PLDT announced that the Asia Direct Cable (ADC) System, a 9,988km fibre optic submarine cable system that links the Philippines to Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and China, is ready for service. The ADC network “solidifies the Philippines’ position as a strategic destination for carriers and content providers seeking to expand in the Asia-Pacific region,” noted the operator, adding that the low-latency network “offers the shortest access to the PLDT Group’s prime hyperscale datacentre, Vitro Sta Rosa (VSR),” and complements transpacific cables, such as the Jupiter Cable System linking the Philippines to Japan and the US.  

PLDT recently reported a 2% increase in annual consolidated service revenues to 194.7bn pesos ($3.4bn) in 2024, with data and broadband services contributing 83% of the total.

– Ian Scales, Contributing Editor, TelecomTV