This week, service provider PLDT in the Philippines announced significant updates regarding data centers and undersea cables. This new information highlights the increasing demand for data in the country. ePLDT, the ICT subsidiary of PLDT, has partnered with fiber internet provider Radius Telecoms to strengthen its telco ecosystem in the upcoming VITRO Santa Rosa (VSR) data center. This partnership will be supported by PLDT Enterprise, the B2B arm of PLDT. The VSR data center is set to go live in early 2024.
Radius Telecoms will establish a point of presence at VSR, offering reliable connectivity solutions to enterprises and hyperscalers that will be collocating in the facility. Additionally, Radius Telecoms is working with ePLDT to expand the fiber connectivity of the VITRO data centers, connecting VSR to VITRO Makati 2 and other key data centers in Metro Manila. This will advance ePLDT's data center interconnect service. VSR is designed to be the first true hyperscale data center in the Philippines. It is equipped with at least three diverse points of entry connected to eight telco-neutral meet-me rooms. This caters to the strict network requirements of hyperscalers who want to establish availability zones and points of presence in the country.
Additionally, PLDT has obtained provisional authority from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to build two new cable landing stations for the upcoming Apricot cable system. These landing stations will be located in Aurora and Davao and are expected to be completed by early 2025. PLDT highlights that these landing stations will offer carriers new and alternative routes that avoid the usual West Philippine Sea waters.
The Apricot cable system, led by Google/Meta, is a 12,000-kilometer-long cable that will connect Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines with Taiwan, Guam and Japan. It has an initial design capacity of over 190 terabits per second and is scheduled to be ready for service in 2024.
