There’s been significant data centre and undersea cable-related news from service provider PLDT in the Philippines this week, underlining the growth in data demand in that country that we reported on earlier today.
ePLDT, the ICT subsidiary of Philippines services provider PLDT, supported by its B2B arm, PLDT Enterprise, has partnered with fibre internet provider Radius Telecoms to strengthen its telco ecosystem in its upcoming VITRO Santa Rosa (VSR) data centre when it goes live in early 2024.
Radius Telecoms will establish a point of presence at VSR, providing reliable connectivity solutions to enterprises and hyperscalers who will soon collocate in the facility. Radius Telecoms is also working with ePLDT to expand the fibre connectivity of the VITRO data centres with a diverse fibre facility linking VSR to VITRO Makati 2 and other key data centres in Metro Manila, advancing ePLDT's data centre interconnect service.
Built to be the Philippines' first true hyperscale data centre, VSR is equipped with at least three diverse points of entry connected to eight telco-neutral meet-me rooms to cater to the stringent network requirements of hyperscalers looking to set up availability zones and points of presence in the country.
In related news, PLDT has secured provisional authority from regulator the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to build two new cable landing stations on the Pacific side of the Philippine Sea for the upcoming Apricot cable system.
According to the Data Centre Dynamics website, the facilities, to be located in Aurora and Davao, are due to be completed by early 2025. PLDT points out that the landing stations will offer carriers new, alternate routes which do not traverse the usual West Philippine Sea waters.
First announced in 2021, the 12,000-kilometre-long Google/Meta-led Apricot cable will connect Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines with Taiwan, Guam and Japan. It has an initial design capacity of more than 190 terabits per second and should be ready for service in 2024.