Globe, Smart, Converge pitch a $500M loop cable to kill PH’s dead zones by 2028

Globe, Smart, and Converge spend most of the year fighting for the same customers, but they just filed a joint proposal that would make them partners on a $500 million project: a loop of brand new undersea cables wrapping the entire archipelago, from Batanes down to Mindanao and back through the Pacific. The same fiber could double as a national sensor for earthquakes, tsunamis, and ships entering Philippine waters. The government wants it live before President Marcos Jr. steps down in 2028.

A P31-billion loop around the archipelago

The three telcos submitted the proposal to the Department of Information and Communications Technology, with the consortium targeting completion within 24 months of government approval.

Unlike upgrades to existing lines, the plan calls for entirely new cables. The route starts in Batanes, crosses to Palawan, links the Visayas, then Mindanao, and loops back to Batanes through the Pacific Ocean for redundancy.

Landing stations would tie into 14 international submarine cables, giving the country more direct links to global networks and a backup path when existing routes get cut. The telcos are shouldering the cost, sparing the government additional spending.

The dead zones it is meant to kill

Only 48.8 percent of Filipino households had internet at home as of 2024, with access concentrated largely in Luzon. The Zamboanga Peninsula has the lowest penetration at 21.2 percent, followed by Bangsamoro at 27.7 percent.

Aguda said the goal is to make fiber reach even the farthest towns. The subsea route is also faster to roll out than digging terrestrial lines, which usually requires extensive construction work.

It would complement the National Fiber Backbone Project, the terrestrial program connecting government offices, schools, and public spaces. DICT is racing to finish phases 4 and 5 of that before the year ends.

A cable that can hear earthquakes

The twist is distributed acoustic sensing. Aguda compared it to a spider web: when the web moves, you know something touched it. The cable will sense seismic movement for earthquake and tsunami warnings, feeding data to Phivolcs in real time.

The Department of National Defense could tap the same system to track vessel movements in territorial waters, a tool for fending off unwanted incursions.

Six agencies are involved: DENR, DOST through Phivolcs, DND, DICT, DILG, and DOE, since power lines could be laid alongside the cable.

What each telco is bringing to the table

PLDT, which owns Smart, already runs a landing station for the APRICOT cable in Digos, one of the international systems backed by Google and Meta.

Globe joined the Candle cable consortium in April, an 8,000-kilometer network linking Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, with service targeted for 2028. The cable will land at Globe’s Nasugbu station in Batangas and complement its Baler landing point.

Converge, which has been aggressively expanding its fiber footprint and crossed 5.5 million fiber installs, sees BPO demand as a key driver for subsea capacity.

What happens next

The DICT has met the telcos at least twice, and the proposal has already been presented to President Marcos Jr. Construction has to start this year for the 2028 target to hold.

Aguda’s promise: “By 2028, we should no longer have any problems with connectivity.”

The consortium itself is the story: PLDT, Globe, and Converge, three operators that usually compete for the same customers, are pooling resources on shared national infrastructure. If approved, the loop would be a rare example of rivals building one backbone together.