Globe joins $400-million submarine cable project

MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom, a leading telecommunications company in the Philippines, is participating in a new submarine fiber optic cable facility – the $400-million new Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) System – which has the highest capacity system in the world.

Company officials said the SJC will further increase the capacity and boost the resiliency of the Globe network.

Total investment for the project is estimated at $400 million to be shared by the members of the consortium. Globe said its total investment for this project is forecast to reach $60 million, including end-to-end facilities. The landing station will be in Nasugbu, Batangas.

“The SJC project is part of our 2010 capital expenditure estimated at $500 million,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said.

The SJC system will initially link Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines and Japan. It uses wavelength transmission technology with design capacity of 17 terabits per second (Tbps) that could be upgraded to 23 Tbps, the highest in the world. About 1.2 Tbps to two Tbps will be going through the Philippine branch.

Globe is the exclusive SJC landing party in the Philippines. This is the fifth major investment of Globe in submarine cable systems, spread across the Trans-Asian region and connected to diverse Trans-Pacific cable systems that bring traffic from the Philippines to international destinations.

Officials explained that the innovative design of the SJC allows for lowest latency paths out of Philippines to Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, with onward connectivity to the US, providing customers faster and better Internet experience.

“It has always been Globe’s thrust to provide its customers with superior experience by delivering pioneering innovations to the Philippines. The investment of Globe in the SJC project is a testament of our commitment to provide our customers with the best connected network so they get uninterrupted and quality service,” Cu said.

Meanwhile, Globe carrier services head Gil Genio said their participation in the SJC project supports the continued growth of their broadband services, and further enhances their capabilities in supporting the offshoring and outsourcing industry in the Philippines.

“Significantly upgraded bandwidth, coupled with dramatically lower unit costs, provide fuel for more Internet services, and provides even more choices for business customers who need to connect internationally,“ he added.

The investment of Globe in SJC will connect the Philippines to the main SJC system and enable cost-effective and resilient connectivity to other countries and other submarine cable systems. Also, the SJC project’s unique and innovative ownership structure enables Globe to maintain control over its capacity for increased security and reliability to its network.

The SJC is a six-fiber high capacity submarine cable system that will allow open access and flexible capacity on usage. It also has flexibility to terminate individual traffic at identified points of presence (PoP) in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Aside from Globe, other initiating parties to this breakthrough project include Google (USA), KDDI (Japan), Network i2i (a 100-percent subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, India), Reliance Globalcom (through Flag Pacific Ltd., Bermuda), and Telemedia Pacific Inc. Ltd. (Hong Kong/Indonesia). Other initial parties have signified their intent to participate in the project once requisite approvals have been obtained.

The initiating parties signed the agreements in Manila last Dec. 10. The SJC is targeted to be operational by the second quarter of 2012.

By investing in another submarine cable system, Globe said it brings increased cable diversity to its network for continuous and superior Internet connectivity and voice services. This will also enable Globe to bring more advanced solutions to Philippine customers, it added.