Globe plugging into new Asia subsea cable

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April 6, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Telco-to-tech giant Globe Telecom Inc. is lighting up a new subsea cable for the Philippines, this time connecting to Asia’s busiest economies for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.

Globe yesterday said it is hopping on the Candle Cable System to plug the Philippines to one of the highest-capacity submarine cables in the works right now.

Candle, scheduled to begin operations by 2028, is designed to transmit as much as 570 terabits of data per second among Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.

Here, Globe will receive Candle through its cable landing station in Nasugbu, Batangas. Candle will lean on a 24-pair configuration that would allow it to deliver larger data at faster speeds.

Further, Candle will connect to some of Asia’s busiest AI hubs, particularly Japan and Singapore. Globe head of business KD Dizon said the project brings the Philippines closer to regional giants on AI development and cloud computing.

“This investment reflects Globe’s commitment to help Filipino companies compete and grow in a fast-moving digital world,” Dizon said.

Globe head of strategy management and business investments Raymond Policarpio said Candle would also be integrated with Globe’s fiber network, boosting the speed of data transfers to both businesses and consumers.

“The international capacity is only one part of the equation, [as] the real advantage comes from integrating Candle directly into our extensive domestic fiber network,” Policarpio said.

Globe is participating in the consortium behind Candle both as developer and investor. The telco will take part in planning and funding the project, and it will also build a cable landing station in Nasugbu.

The consortium behind Candle is made up of Meta, SoftBank Corp., IPS Inc., Telekom Malaysia Berhad, PT XLSmart Telecom Sejahtera Tbk and NEC Corp. The project will traverse the West Philippine Sea, but will avoid China’s nine-dash line claim to avert any maritime trouble.