Southeast Asia-Japan Cable System strengthens Globe regional connectivity

The Southeast Asia-Japan Cable (SJC) submarine cable system is now fully operational, and strengthening Globe Telecom’ s connectivity with the region and the rest of the world.

The leading telecommunications company, which forms part of the consortium, said the SJC cable system will enhance its customers’ growing need for international connectivity as the undersea cable facility dramatically increases bandwidth capacity.

“The additional capacity  generated by the SJC system is highly cost effective, allowing  greater route flexibility, and enabling Globe Telecom to provide businesses and consumers future support for bandwidth- hungry applications, consistent with the explosion of mobile Internet and IT enabled services,” said Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu.

According to Cu, the undersea cable system also provides resilient connectivity to other submarine cable systems, which will further enhance the company’s global link.  The cable system is expected to further enrich the way the Asia Pacific region, including the Philippines, interacts and communicates with the rest of the world, added Cu.

Operated by a global consortium of telecommunications and technology companies, the SJC cable system links the seven countries or territories of Brunei, mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines, including option to link with Thailand.

The SJC is an 8,900-kilometer cable system, which further extend to 9,700 kilometers. 

At a project cost of around US$400 million, the SJC cable system consists of 6 fiber pairs with the initial design capacity of 28 terabits per second, the fastest speed an undersea cabling system can provide, to meet bandwidth-intensive applications such as internet TV, online games and enterprise data exchange.  To illustrate, the cable’s design capacity can support simultaneous streaming of up to 3 million high-definition videos.

Increased transmission capacity of the SJC cable system, in tandem with the company’s network modernization initiative, will further boost network coverage for its subscribers nationwide.  Globe Telecom’s $700 million network modernization program includes an aggressive roll-out of its own fiber optic transmission system.

This  will further enhance customer experience in terms of high-speed internet surfing, seamless video streaming, fast uploads of photos and videos, in addition to a more reliable network for both local and international text and voice calls.

Aside from the SJC cable system, Globe Telecom is also interconnected with the East Asia Cable system, Asia Pacific Cable Network, Tata Global Network–Intra Asia cable system, the City to City cable system and the Trans-Pacific Cable system, which encompasses the Unity, Tata Global Network-Pacific, Japan-US Cable Network and the US Domestic Access cable systems.

On the other hand, existing domestic cable systems of Globe Telecom, catering to transmission requirement connecting Luzon to various islands in Visayas and Mindanao, include the Fiber Optic Backbone Network1 (FOBN1), FOBN2 and the Boracay, Palawan and Coron submarine cable systems, which comprise the FOBN3.

The SJC is a global consortium of companies composed of Brunei International Gateway Sendirian Berhad (BIG), China Mobile International Ltd. (CMI), China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Telecom Global Limited (CTG, an affiliate of China Telecommunications Corporation), Donghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Chunghwa Telecom, Co.,Ltd.), Globe Telecom, Inc., Google SJC Bermuda Ltd. (a subsidiary of Google Inc.), KDDI Corporation, Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin a subsidiary of PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk), and TOT Public Co., Ltd. (TOT).