Huawei Marine Networks Co, Ltd. (Huawei Marine) has announced the successful completion of the Boracay and Palawan Submarine Cable System (BPSCS) in the Philippines.
The domestic system, with a total length of over 330km consists of two segments; one linking Boracay and Caticlan, the other linking Taytay, Palawan and San Jose, Mindoro with a branching unit towards the island of Coron. For Globe, completion of this submarine cable system enables them to complement the modernization of their transport backbone network.
According to the Globe Network Technical Group, this major upgrade, under the company’s $700 million nationwide modernization initiative, replaces the existing SDH microwave equipment with fiber optic technology using DWDM system in these two vital areas of growth in the Philippines.
The cable rollout now forms part of the fiber optic footprint of the company, currently at 30,000 kilometers, spanning the archipelago, from Aparri to the Zamboanga region, and will extend further as modernization progresses.
The 12-fibre pair submarine cable brings the optical fiber communication era to Boracay and Taytay, and creates a foundation for revenue growth by servicing demand from business and tourism in the Palawan region. The system is designed to accommodate transmission of 40 wavelengths at 40Gbps capacity per fibre pair, scalable to 100Gbps per fibre pair. This is equivalent to a massive 19.2Tbps, which will provide sufficient bandwidth to serve customers’ data telecommunications requirements such as for 3.5G/HSPA+ and 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) services.
The delivery of the system proved to be quite challenging with the team having to plan and mitigate against tough environmental conditions, including strong current conditions and sensitive coral. Once again, with good cooperation from Globe, the team delivered an excellent service demonstrating Huawei Marine turn-key delivery capability.
”This system will allow for the deployment of cutting edge communications services for the people, businesses and institutions of this country.” said Mr. Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Huawei Marine. “We are pleased and honoured to have played a critical part in Globe’s wider strategic program and look forward to building upon this trusted partnership that resulted in our joint success. I would like to thank Globe for trusting Huawei Marine to install this turnkey network. Our teams have worked closely throughout the project to optimize the solution and deliver the system to the customers’ requirements.”
Press Release, July 30, 2013; Image: submarinecablemap