PLDT Invests $2million in AAG 100G Upgrade

According to PLDT news on Jul 2, 2014, PLDT has invested US$2million on the latest AAG upgrade with 100G per wavelength technology, which will double PLDT's international bandwidth capacity directly to the US. PLDT owns approximately 10% of shares of the AAG cable system. The AAG 100G upgrade is expected to be finished in February 2015. And Ciena was selected by the AAG consortium for the AAG 100G upgrade.

PLDT President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said the incremental capacity from this project will allow PLDT to support more industry requirements as well as further enhance the quality of experience of customers of the PLDT Group.

“With the deployment of 100G technology in this international link, we will be able to extract more capacity out of our existing fiber cables and support the delivery of high-bandwidth services and applications. This will give our customers the benefits of a much faster and resilient global transport network,” said Nazareno.

The PLDT Group has heavily invested in fortifying its facilities to meet the surge in data and multi-media services running through the network. By the end of 2014, PLDT’s fiber assets will have an additional 15,000 kilometers of new fiber optic cable facilities with an estimated investment of over P1 billion to reach nearly 100,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables laid out to meet the surge of expected data traffic, more than four times than competition.

PLDT is investing US$2 million (P86 million) in the AAG 100G upgrade project that will double the current bandwidth capacity of the only transpacific cable that directly links Southeast Asia and the Philippines to the US Mainland. PLDT was a lead investor in the build out of the AAG Cable System running 20,000 kilometers of high-bandwidth optical fiber linking Southeast Asia directly to the US for a total cost of US$500 million, of which US$50 million represents PLDT’s share.

“Attuning to globalization and meeting world standards, we’ve readied our network not only in our domestic capacity but also in our international links to better future-proof PLDT in the foreseen surge of more intensive and bandwidth-hungry services, particularly to and from the US,” PLDT Technology Group Head Rolando Pena added.

PLDT leads the country among providers with the most number of international cables as well as landing stations that greatly contribute to the flow of bandwidth traffic going in and out of the country. The AAG cable is PLDT’s fourth international cable link to upgrade to 100G technology with the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) and the Japan-US Cable system (JUCN) already in 100G, while the Asia Submarine Cable Express (ASE) 100G upgrade is ongoing.

“We’ve always anticipated the need to constantly increase our capacity especially in serving the country’s leading industries given their demand for a resilient, low latency, and expansive data-driven network such as the BPO and Outsourcing industries,” said PLDT EVP and Head of Enterprise, International and Carrier Business Eric Alberto.

PLDT was also the first network operator in the Philippines to deploy 100G in its domestic fiber optic network. When it was launched in 2012, the Philippines rose in leadership position in Asia-Pacific, among only a handful of other countries in the region, to deploy 100G technology in its domestic network.

The AAG consortium consists of 19 parties providing connectivity between the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR, Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast and seamless interconnection with other major cable systems connecting Europe, Australia, other parts of Asia and Africa and using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology to provide upgradeable, future-proof transmission facilities for telecommunications traffic.

Source: PLDT