InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines - Marine construction work has started on the $300-million Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), a vital 7,200-kilometer system meant to provide seamless interconnection with other major cable systems connecting the United States, Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the selected landing party in the Philippines of the ASE submarine cable system, gave the press an update on the project on Wednesday.
The facility is expected to expand by more than twice over the existing international bandwidth capacity of PLDT when it is completed in the third quarter of 2012.
It is also seen to benefit many of PLDT’s clients like those in the corporate, SME (small and medium enterprise), and retail broadband, including within wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. They will all be provided with enhanced network redundancy for superior telecommunications services.
PLDT is working with NTTCom of Japan and StarHub of Singapore, in partnership with NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd., in the submarine cable project.
The committed investment of the Philippine phone giant is $55 million, inclusive of the construction of the cable landing station, or the equivalent of an 18-percent investment share.
PLDT said this investment will be financed through internally generated funds.
Part of the project is for PLDT to put up another cable landing station on the Philippine east coast.
PLDT reported on Tuesday that the start of cable laying was marked by a ceremony last week in Daet, Camarines Norte, where PLDT's cable landing station is being built. It is PLDT's third landing station, having set up two others in Nasugbu, Batangas and Bauang, La Union.
According to PLDT Network Services Assurance Senior Vice President George N. Lim, “We have designed a future-ready network that can potentially supply more than 15 Terabits per second capacity, initially using 40 Gigabits per second wavelength technology, and in the future, 100 Gigabits per second wavelength capability.”
He said “the ASE system will initially link Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore through a fiber optic cable that spans 7,200 kilometers. It will also connect us to Malaysia, and in the next phases, potentially to other economically vibrant Asian countries, such as China, Vietnam and Thailand. ASE can be connected to other major cable systems to Europe, the Middle East, the other parts of Asia, and the United States of America.”
As a new-generation, high bandwidth, optical fiber undersea cable system, the ASE is the biggest-capacity international submarine cable ever in the Philippines.
It is seen to enable PLDT and its group of companies, including Smart and newly acquired Digitel and Sun, to serve the increasing bandwidth requirements of their combined customer base.
The new cable system is projected to benefit large businesses like banks, call centers and BPO companies, as well as small and medium enterprises doing business through the internet.
Daet Municipal Mayor Tito Sarte Sarion welcomed the PLDT, NTTCom and NEC guests at the recent cable-laying ceremony. He said Daet is pleased to host the PLDT International Cable Landing Station rising in Barangay Bagasbas in his town. The new PLDT cable station will house the ASE cable’s state-of-the-art fiber optic equipment and supervisory systems.
“Our municipality of Daet is very fortunate to host one of the most powerful and far-reaching telecommunications facilities not only in the country but the Asia-Pacific. We are very excited that, as we welcome the ASE cable landing facilities, we are on the other hand repositioning our town to become the preferred location for telecommunications technology-dependent industries. We will now have PLDT which will make us viable and highly competitive,” Sarte Sarion said.
With the ASE, new bandwidth heavy broadband applications requiring international access, such as IP-based data, external video content, and other external multimedia services can be offered by the PLDT Group, and easily accessed by its customers. ASE will further enhance and fortify the resiliency of PLDT’s international network.
PLDT Network Planning and Engineering Vice President Gene Sanchez said “a highly resilient international network is expected to survive man-made and natural disasters such as the major undersea earthquake near the Bashi channel in December 2006 which resulted in the temporary ‘isolation’ of some countries. ASE can easily help fulfill such aspiration of PLDT.”
“With a highly resilient network, PLDT for instance will be able to divert all or part of its traffic towards Japan and the US, via the new diverse route that ASE will traverse if problems, such as multiple cable cuts happen to APCN2, EAC, and AAG cables which all pass through the Bashi channel between Taiwan and Luzon Island,” Sanchez said.
