Globe gets Palawan-Coron Submarine Fiber Optic Cable system underway

Lays first-ever fiber optic backbone linking Palawan to the rest of the Philippines, the world

To support the heightening tourism and business activities in the Western portion of the Philippines, Globe has successfully landed a 400-kilometer submarine fiber optic cable in Palawan, which will function as a “superhighway” of telecommunications services between Puerto Princesa City to the main Luzon island and the rest of the country and the world via San Jose, Mindoro, making the company the first telco to fiberize the area. It is also the first-ever fiber optic backbone connecting Palawan to the rest of the Philippines and globally.

The established interconnectivity will be equipped with ultra-long haul dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), designed to transmit 40 wavelengths at 40-gigabits per second (GBPS) capacity per fiber pair, scalable to 100 GBPS per fiber pair. This translates to 19.2 Terabits per second of capacity, which will provide more than enough bandwidth to serve transmission requirements to enable evolved high speed packet access (HSPA+) and long term evolution or LTE in the area, capable of providing the required bandwidth for subscribers to have high-speed internet surfing, seamless video streaming, fast uploads of photos and videos to social media sites, and a more reliable network for text and voice calls.

According to the Globe Network Technical Group, this major upgrade under the company’s $700 million nationwide modernization initiative will replace existing SDH microwave equipment with fiber optic technology and DWDM system as the main transport backbone of Palawan.

The cable rollout now forms part of the fiber optic footprint of the company, currently at 27,000 kilometers spanning the archipelago — from Aparri to the Zamboanga region — and will extend further as modernization progresses.

This landing was simultaneously rolled out with the Southeast Asia-Japan international submarine cable system in Nasugbu, Batangas, intensifying the fiber optic footprint of Globe in Southern Luzon and the MIMAROPA region. In late November 2012, a similar fiber cable facility was installed in Boracay which interconnected the island hotspot with the rest of the archipelago, forming a major part of the company’s fibering of the Philippines. Following the Coron FOC landing in May will be El Nido before yearend, providing triple fiber strength to the island hailed as the country’s final frontier.

Globe Chief Network Architect Emmanuel Estrada said that the fiber optic inter-island connectivity will definitely bring about not only a richer mobile experience for their residents but will likewise augur well in heightening travel and tourism as well as bringing more brisk business activities, as Puerto Princesa City and Coron in Palawan are hailed as premier destinations not only locally but worldwide. “The fiber optic cables will ensure that the network in the area is future-proofed, able to serve heavy stream of mobile traffic and on a larger scale, the entire telecommunication services of the area,” he said.

Leading the cable landing activity are (from left) Global Marine Project Manager Lawson Tang, Globe Regional Solutions Head South Luzon Rolando Ortiz, Globe Head of Inner Core Transport Engineering & Project Manager - Submarine System Rene Martin Go, Globe South Luzon Operation Regional Head Narciso Salamat, Huawei Marine Project Director Kevin Zhang, Globe Head of Transport Fixed Network Division Constantine Serafica and Globe Head of Operation Support System Niles Howsare.