According to PLDT Global Corp. president and CEO Albert Villa-Real, the firm aims to support the Philippines in its path to becoming a center for hyperscale investments in the region.
“PLDT Global remains committed to providing innovative platforms and channels to our global network of carriers and technology partners (and) connecting them to a huge market of potential clients not only overseas, but also in the Philippines,” Villa-Real said.
PLDT Global, the international unit of PLDT, vowed to pitch its parent’s extensive infrastructure to foreign investors. In particular, PLDT Global hopes to attract hyperscalers to locate their next data offices in the Philippines with PLDT as their service provider.
As of March, PLDT has a fiber footprint spanning more than 1.1 million kilometers, made up of 874,000 kilometers in domestic fiber and 231,000 kilometers in international fiber. Likewise, this network supports Smart Communication Inc.’s wireless presence that can cover 97 percent of the population.
Down the line, PLDT plans to boost its data capacity by 65 percent by constructing its 12th data center soon, as the firm expects the demand for colocation spaces to just keep on growing.
Data centers serve as storage sites for tech giants, such as Amazon, Google and Meta, given that they manage hundreds of millions of users who access their platforms.
Based on estimates, S&P Global said the data center market in the Philippines would rise by an average of 13 percent from 2020 to 2025. The country is expected to compete with its Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam in the data center race.
At present, PLDT offers a total capacity of nearly 10,000 racks through the 10 data centers that it operates. In the long run, the telco giant committed to scale up its rack capacity with the entry of new investors.
On the financial side, PLDT is gaining from its move to gamble on the business viability of data centers.
PLDT booked a 12 percent jump in revenue from information and communication technology to P5.4 billion in 2022, from P4.8 billion in 2021, with data centers accounting for over half at P2.9 billion.
Similarly, PLDT is scheduled to complete its 11th and largest data center in Sta. Rosa, Laguna by next year, raising PLDT’s total capacity to serve hyperscale activities by 50 megawatts.
(S) PhilStar Global
