Globe Telecom on Tuesday said it interconnected Coron in Palawan province through fiber optics. Huawei is assisting the telecom operator.
The move — connecting the island via a fiber connection, complementing the existing submarine fiber optic links to Boracay and Palawan — further strengthens network coverage in the country’s premier tourist destination.
The initiative is part of Globe Telecom’s network modernization program and the upgrade is expected to allow subscribers vacationing in the area to share their Coron experiences through voice, text and high speed data.
“The submarine fiber connection in Coron forms part of our efforts to boost network coverage and augment capacity given increasing demand for connectivity even while our customers are on vacation and to enhance overall network performance,” said Robert Tan, Globe chief technical adviser.
The Coron submarine cable system is a 62-kilometer fiber optic cable that branched off from the 270-kilometer fiber optic network between Mindoro and the main island of Palawan to serve the communication services of one the best tourist destinations in the country.
This is an upgrade from the existing microwave system to a more robust and reliable transmission system using fiber optic technology and dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) system, designed to transmit 40 wavelengths at 40 gigabits per second capacity per fiber pair.
Globe Telecom says this will provide the required bandwidth for subscribers to have high-speed internet surfing, seamless video streaming, fast uploads of photos and videos to social media sites, and a more reliable network for text and voice calls.
Tan said the Coron submarine cable system will power up cell sites with 3G and HSPA+ connectivity and will readily support LTE services. It has a total transmission capacity of 9.6 terabits per second. The undersea cable system is also upgradable to a 100 gigabits per second DWDM system, giving the company flexibility in providing other network services.
The company’s network transformation program includes as a component the roll-out of about 12,000 kilometers of optical fiber lines nationwide.
