Telstra expands business offerings in the Philippines

Telstra has expanded its business and service offerings in the Philippines with the launch of a new Point of Presence (PoP) in Pasig City, and the establishment of a new partnership with Converge, the leading pure fibre data network and internet service provider in the country. The expansion aims to offer more choice for customers and enhance connectivity into the Philippines, and within the country.

The new partnership, known as Telstra Converge Inc. (TCI, formerly 'Digitel Crossing, Inc.'), is a joint venture with Converge Information Communications and Technology Solutions Inc. (Converge). It comes at a time when the Philippines has become an emerging hub of connectivity in Asia due to its increasing bandwidth demand and high growth potential, as well as its rapidly increasing attractiveness as a submarine cable hub.

The joint venture, TCI, has allowed Telstra to build new terrestrial fibre routes between its East Asia Crossing (EAC) and City-to-City (C2C) submarine cable landing stations in the Philippines, as well as into Makati City in the Metro Manila region, the country's financial, commercial, and economic hub. This expansion enables Telstra to provide quality end-to-end solutions for its customers.

As the largest foreign submarine cable owner in the Philippines, Telstra also has access to two submarine cable landing stations in the country. They form part of the EAC-C2C network, which is the largest privately-owned submarine cable network, with a design capacity of 17.92 Tbps to 30.72 Tbps and a total cable length of 36,800 kilometres.

To ensure internet services are more accessible and stable for customers in the Philippines, Telstra has deployed a third PoP in Pasig City, a first-class commercial and residential city in the Metro Manila region, linking to the two existing, primary PoPs in Makati City. The new PoP enables Ethernet Private Line (EPL) services of 10G and 100G.

Alfred Au Yeung, Head of Strategic Transactions, Global Wholesale at Telstra, said: "Telstra has been operating in the Philippines for more than 25 years with in-country telecommunication expertise and a dedicated local support team. Our enhanced infrastructure further enables us to offer faster and quality connectivity in and out of the Philippines. Not only does it equip our customers with cable diversity and options for network resiliency, it also offers a truly end-to-end solution that fits their increasing bandwidth demands."

"Looking ahead, Telstra will continue to explore opportunities and collaborate with industry partners, to fully maximise the potential of the Philippines as a new connectivity hub in Asia," he added.