PacNet to invest up to USD15m per annum in cable upgrade

Internet service provider (ISP) PacNet has revealed it is investing up to USD15 million per annum to upgrade its submarine cable network in the Philippines to meet increased demand for business process outsourcing (BPO) services in the country. PacNet CEO William Barney says the upgrade will accommodate future internet bandwidth demand in the country, which is expected to triple to 156,669Mbps by 2010. The ISP’s cable network currently has capacity of 10.24Tbps – roughly two-thirds the total capacity in the region, and its Filipino operation accounts for about 4% to 5% of its total revenues in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Barney. Separately, PacNet is part of a consortium that includes Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI of Japan and Singapore Telecom (SingTel), which is investing USD300 million in a new trans-Pacific submarine cable, dubbed Unity, designed to connect Japan to the west coast of the US.