Converge limits impact of Singapore cable outage

Converge ICT Solutions Inc. limited the impact of a submarine cable disruption between the Philippines and Singapore after shifting traffic to alternative international routes, preventing a wider interruption for its residential and enterprise customers.

The fiber internet provider reported on Monday that it rerouted traffic following the disruption on Friday, with most of the affected traffic shifted through the Bifrost international cable system.

“This allowed minimal disruption in our services to both our residential and enterprise customers due to the cable issue between Singapore and the Philippines,” Converge CEO Dennis Anthony Uy said.

Some customers experienced difficulties accessing applications and websites hosted in Singapore following the cable disruption.

Converge said its investments in additional international cable systems gave it alternative routes to handle traffic during outages, reducing its reliance on individual connections between the Philippines and overseas destinations.

“We have planned our investments in these international cable systems as early as five years ago precisely in anticipation of these incidents. Our investments in Bifrost along with SEA-H2X (Southeast Asia - Hainan - Hong Kong Express Cable) have allowed us to achieve international network redundancy that’s most important at a time like this,” Uy said.

The Trans-Pacific Bifrost Cable System spans more than 20,000 kilometers and connects the Philippines to Singapore, Indonesia, Guam and the United States. It has a total design capacity of more than 240 terabits per second (Tbps).

Converge serves as the Philippine landing party for Bifrost through its landing station in Davao and owns one fiber pair in the cable's trunk.

The company is also part of the consortium that owns the 6,000-kilometer SEA-H2X submarine cable, which links Hong Kong, Hainan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore. The system has a design capacity of more than 200 Tbps and lands in La Union.

“With the additional capacity from these two new cables, Converge not only has the youngest but it also has the most resilient international network among Philippine operators today,” Uy said.

Converge expects demand for international capacity to continue growing alongside increased use of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, prompting the company to continue investing in submarine cables and data centers.