Telstra has enhanced network infrastructure and service offerings.
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.
Telstra boosts connectivity between Australia and the world with Southern Cross NEXT subsea cable
Telstra announced that the first direct subsea cable to connect Australia with the US will be ready for service in July 2022. The Southern Cross NEXT cable (SX NEXT) will enhance connectivity between Australia and New Zealand and the US, with branching units to Fiji, Kiribati, and Tokelau. Telstra is a 25 per cent shareholder of the Southern Cross Cables Network (SCCN), the owner of SX NEXT.
SX NEXT will be the first single span express cable, and the first direct cable, to connect Australia to the US, making it the shortest subsea route. It is also the only cable that has landing stations in Tokelau and Kiribati in the Pacific Islands. SX NEXT has a four-fibre pair cable system capable of transporting 72Tbps, a remarkable addition to the current bandwidth and connectivity options linking Australia and the South Pacific Islands to the US.
The cable is built using up to 400G Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology and purpose-built landing stations, which will deliver high-speed connectivity and low latency between countries, as well as a resilient network infrastructure for the Pacific region.
When SX NEXT launches, it will lead to a major improvement in internet quality and internet penetration across the Oceania. Allowing different data streams to be sent simultaneously over a single optical fibre network will enable a higher data transfer rate and optimise network investment. As a result, the faster connectivity, stability, and resiliency provided by SX NEXT will help accelerate digital transformation for businesses across the region.
There are 12 international submarine cables connecting Australia to the rest of the world, and the SX NEXT cable will be the third cable in the SCCN ecosystem. The SX NEXT cable is among the largest single submarine cable infrastructure projects in the world which spans approximately 15,857 kilometres along the sea floor. SX NEXT complements the existing Southern Cross and Endeavor-AAG cable systems in connecting Australia and the US. The redundancy of the Southern Cross cables with SCCN creates seamless, efficient paths from Australia into Asia-Pacific, the US, and beyond.
Oliver Camplin-Warner, Telstra International CEO said Telstra was delighted to have partnered with SCCN to launch the new subsea cable SX NEXT.
“With the rise of cloud-based services and hybrid remote working models, connectivity with diversity and reliability is more critical than ever to ensure constant uptime and uninterrupted services. We will continue to innovate on our network infrastructure and work with our industry partners on providing more accessible, faster, and more stable connectivity to our customers, enabling them to connect with the rest of the world.
“The SX NEXT cable will strengthen Telstra’s existing subsea network infrastructure – one of the largest in the Asia-Pacific region – and solidify our commitment to connecting people and communities from Australia and the Pacific Islands to the US and around the world.”
