MANILA, Philippines, October 21, 2022 – The Philippines’ largest fully integrated
telco PLDT will continue to expand its international cable network as the initial phase of
cable construction of the Asia Direct Cable (ADC) begins in Batangas, just months after
the successful launch of the Jupiter cable system.
The construction of the 9,400-kilometer subsea cable will commence in the Philippines
and target completion of all landing links is end of 2023. Submarine fiber optic cables
are among the most critical components of the internet’s infrastructure, as they serve
as the global backbone connecting countries while carrying massive amounts of data
that enable digital trade across the globe.

When completed, ADC will link seven international cable landing points across East
and Southeast Asia from Batangas, Philippines to Tuas, Singapore; Chung Hom Kok,
Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand; and
Shantou, China.
“Along with PLDT’s existing international submarine cable systems, the Asia Direct
Cable will boost and diversify the Philippines’ connectivity within the Asian region,” said
PLDT President & CEO, Al S. Panlilio.
“ADC will strengthen not only PLDT’s global network, but will also further advance the
country’s digitalization and growing digital economy,” adds Panlilio.
The cable system will feature a minimum of 200G DWDM system per wavelength
design, which will significantly expand PLDT’s network bandwidth going in and out of
the country. Once fully equipped, this will provide PLDT an additional international
network capacity of at least 36Tbps for faster delivery of hyperscale data across East
and Southeast Asia.
“The Asia Direct Cable will strongly bolster PLDT’s mission to make the Philippines the
next hyperscaler destination in Asia-Pacific. This investment solidifies our commitment
to enrich and synergize the country’s Hyperscale Ecosystem of connected digital
infrastructures, such as data centers, subsea cables, domestic fiber network, 5G,
cloud, and IOT,” said PLDT SVP & Head of Enterprise Business Group, Jojo G.
Gendrano.
ADC and the recently energized Jupiter cable system will drive global data straight to
and from VITRO Sta. Rosa and the rest of PLDT’s data center facilities across the
country, strengthening the Philippines’ advantage as a strategic digital hub in the
region. The interconnection between these massive infrastructures will further enrich
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the country’s IP ecosystem hosted in the VITRO internet exchange (VIX). VIX provides
cloud service operators, content providers and global carriers access to the country’s
massive digital-savvy consumers enabling synergies through data exchange amongst
entities.
ADC is a global consortium comprised of leading communications and technology
companies, including PLDT, China Telecom, China Unicom, National Telecom, Singtel,
SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications and Viettel Group.
The upcoming activation of ADC and Apricot cables systems will increase to 19 the
number of international submarine cable systems of PLDT and once fully equipped will
expand current international network capacity of 60 Tbps to over 130 Tbps. Together
with the most expansive fiber optic cable infrastructure and the largest data center
network across the archipelago, PLDT’s network remains unparalleled in the
Philippines.