Feb 4 2011
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) announced that it has inked a construction and maintenance agreement (C&MA) with several telecom companies in Singapore and Japan to develop a new high bandwidth fiber-optic cable system.
The Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) spans for a distance of 7,200 km and will connect Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, and Japan. The cable system will also link Mainland China, Malaysia, and other Southeast Asian countries.
ASE will offer interconnection capabilities with several cable systems that link the United States, the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of Asia. It provides over 15 Tb of 40 Gb/s transmission technology. ASE also has the potential to include 100Gbps optical technology in the coming years. Inclusion of the optical technology will cater to the increased growth in bandwidth needs for broadband applications such as data, video, and IP services.
PLDT’s VP for Network Planning and Engineering, Genaro C. Sanchez stated that the company has developed a cable landing station on the eastern coast of Philippines. The cable landing station has the ability to survive disasters such as an earthquake.