Globe Telecom has reportedly joined the consortium building the new 8,000km Candle submarine cable system, which will connect Japan and Singapore with additional links to Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Philippine mobile operator is joining a regional consortium consisting of SoftBank, Meta, IPS, TM Technology Services and XLSmart Telecom.
The Candle submarine cable system, announced last September, will feature a configuration of 24 fiber pairs. Each fiber pair consists of two optical fibers – one for transmitting and one for receiving. Therefore, a 24-fiber-pair system contains a total of 48 optical fibers. This configuration will enable higher-capacity, lower-latency transmission to meet the growing demand for connectivity across Asia.
NEC has been chosen as the system supplier. The new system is expected to be operational in 2028.
Investor and landing party
According to local news reports, Globe Telecom will participate in the consortium as both an investor and a landing party, with the company providing a cable landing station in Nasugbu, Batangas located in the Philippines Calabarzon region. The company will handle the planning, financing and construction of the station.
Globe Telecom said that the new cable landing station in Batangas will complement the station in Baler, Aurora that is being developed by IPS through its local telecommunications unit, InfiniVAN.
KD Dizon, Globe vice president and head of Globe Business, told local media that the two stations, which span the country’s eastern and western seaboards, will ensure business continuity for enterprises, even during natural disasters, since they reduce single points of failure.
“Businesses cannot afford uncertainty, so our focus is on infrastructure that stays ready even when conditions are tough,” Dizon said, as quoted by the Manila Bulletin.
Boosting data transfer speeds
Globe Telecom expects the Candle submarine cable system to provide up to 570 Tbit/s of total capacity, which will support improved connectivity across Asia once the system is operational.
Raymond Policarpio, Globe’s head of strategy management and business investments, also revealed Candle would be integrated with Globe’s fiber network. This will boost the speed of data transfers for businesses and consumers.
“The international capacity is only one part of the equation, [as] the real advantage comes from integrating Candle directly into our extensive domestic fiber network,” Policarpio said, as quoted by the Philippine Star.