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GLOBE
Telecom has started construction of a cable-landing
station in Cagayan and targets to complete the
$40-million investment in November.
The firm
is the exclusive landing party in the Philippines to a
new cable project spearheaded by VSNL International, a
member of the Tata Group of India, which will set up a
trans-Asian submarine cable system that will link the
Philippines to Hong Kong and Singapore, with
connectivity via the TGN Pacific network to Japan, Guam
and the United States.
“As a
member and Philippine representative/operator of the
TGN-IACS, Globe invested the amount of $40 million to
the project. As such, it has already begun construction
of a landing station in Ballesteros, Cagayan,” the
cellular firm told the National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC).
Over the
weekend, Globe filed an application with the NTC for the
issuance of certificate of public convenience and
necessity, or CPCN, to establish, install, operate and
maintain an international cable-landing station, the
company’s second after the Batangas international
cable-landing and submarine cable system.
Globe
said the first cable system is vulnerable to earthquakes
and other natural calamities. To prevent service
disruption similar to the recent Taiwan earthquake, the
company will expand existing switching and transmission
facilities by building another cable-landing station.
The
station will allow the cellular firm to introduce
state-of-the-art facilities for sending and receiving
its own network and interconnect traffic via existing
IGF (international gateway facility) and IXC (interexchange
carrier) facilities. The cellular firm said this is in
line with its objective to provide more efficient and
affordable service, and in answer to the increasing
demand for international bandwidth.
“The
expansion of facilities and introduction of new
equipment through this cable-landing station will allow
Globe to establish voice connectivity for its IGF
service with its foreign correspondents that will, in
turn, be piped in to its own and other carriers’
subscribers.
Moreover, the cable station would also allow the landing
of domestic cable facilities that would enable Globe’s
IXC service to establish direct voice connectivity with
its interconnected parties, Globe said.
A
technical description of the IACS cable-landing station
submitted by Globe to the NTC stated that the station
will house the submarine cable- termination equipment,
transmission multiplex equipment, optical and digital
distribution panels, computer workstations, power
rectifier and inverter systems, DC battery system,
generators and fuel-storage tank.
A fully
protected inland fiber-optic backhaul network to Metro
Manila will connect the cable station, which will be
operated 24x7.
The IACS
is a state-of-the-art multiterabit fiber-optic submarine
cable system linking the Philippines to Singapore, Hong
Kong and Japan with capability for other landings in
Asia in the future. Direct connectivity to the
United States
and Guam will be provided via the existing transPacific
cable, the TGBN-Pacific. It will be deploying the latest
technology in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing.
A spur
of the IACS will be anchored in a beach manhole at
Ballesteros. The submarine cable will terminate at a
cable station, located about 2 kilometers from the beach
manhole.
“Needles
to say, this proposed cable-landing system, which will
bring to the fore the most modern and seamless
telecommunications technology, shall be a vital
instrument in the attainment of economic recovery for
the country. Moreover, this project is targeted for
completion by November 2008,” Globe said. |
