English (UK) 
简体中文(中国) According Manila Bulletin news, PLDT Inc. will invest P3.9 Billion (US$80M) in the APRICOT undersea cable system connecting the Philippines to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Guam. The Apricot consortium comprises PLDT, Chunghwa Telecom, NTT, Facebook and Google. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.
The Apricot cable system will expand PLDT’s network bandwidth capacity to service the country’s growing data traffic. It will augment PLDT’s international capacity for data traffic, particularly to the US and across Asia and the Pacific.
The Apricot cable system will span 12,000 kilometers, with design capacity of more than 190Tbps, connecting the Philippines to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Guam.
The Apricot cable system features state-of-the-art technology, including 400G transmission, multiple pairs of high-capacity optical fibers, submersible ROADM (reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer) employing WSS (wavelength selective switch) for a grid-less and flexible bandwidth configuration, and SDM (Space Division Multiplexing) design.
These features ensure that massive amounts of data traffic will be facilitated, creating exceptional service quality to end users.
The Apricot cable project will further serve PLDT Group’s fixed and wireless subscribers on the consumer level, and its large enterprise client base.
“APRICOT is key to enhancing network resilience because new cable landing stations in Luzon and Mindanao will be built as part of this submarine cable system,” says PLDT VP and International Facilities Investments Management Head Gene Sanchez.
“With the cable to be routed via the eastern coast of the Philippines, it will also increase the submarine cable route diversity in the Asia-Pacific region,” he noted.
The APRICOT Cable project is the third international cable network system announced by the PLDT Group in the last two years.
When completed, APRICOT would bring PLDT’s participation in 18 international cable systems.
Earlier, PLDT announced its US$136.7 million investment in the Jupiter Cable project, and in the 9,400-kilometer Asia Direct Cable system, set to be completed by end 2021 and early 2023, respectively.
Currently, PLDT has extensive participation in 14 international submarine cable systems and one terrestrial system carrying data traffic going in and out of the Philippines.
These include the Asia-America Gateway (AAG), Asia-submarine Cable Express, APCN2, and South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 which are routed through PLDT’s three existing cable landing stations in Batangas, Daet, and La Union.
