wiredinUSA October 2019

Australia to support East Timor connection

Connecting the Philippines

Photo by Cristian Palmer on Unsplash

Photo by Sam Balye on Unsplash

The Australian government will fund the first subsea fiber optic cable connection to East Timor. The country currently relies on satellite links for an extremely slow Internet connection. Last year, Australia stepped in to fund two- thirds of the cost of a fiber optic connection to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, a move designed to assist in the development of the two nations and avoid Chinese involvement in the project. East Timor is another nation increasingly looking to China for investment. The cable will link East Timor into the existing North-West Cable System, which runs from Darwin to Port Hedland. While the government has not revealed the precise value of the project, the subsea fiber optic cable to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands is known to have cost $133 million for 4,700km of cable. The East Timor cable will be less than 500km. The World Bank has forecast that the improved Internet access in Papua and the Solomons could contribute $5 billion to the Pacific economy, create up to 300,000 new jobs by 2040, and improve business, education and telemedicine opportunities.

PLDT, a telecommunications and digital services provider in the Philippines, will launch two new subsea cables in Asia Pacific and southeast Asia, in addition to its planned Jupiter cable. Genaro C Sanchez, PLDT’s vice president for international networks, has said that the company is keen to increase connectivity options in the region. Speaking at the Asian Carriers Conference in Cebu in September, Sanchez explained: “Some of the cables now landed in the Philippines need upgrading because they only have roughly 25 years of service life; we have three projects lined up.” Sanchez did not reveal the routes for the other two cables, but he did confirm that they will link the Philippines with key strategic locations in the region. “For the two other projects,” he said “we have yet to sign the construction and maintenance agreement. Our position is to sign it in October or November.” PLDT’s 60Tbps Jupiter cable will link the Philippines and Japan with the west coast of the US, over a 14,000km route. The cable will be ready for service in early 2020.

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wiredInUSA October 2019