With the projected increase in demand from global hyperscalers, PLDT Inc. plans to build the “biggest data center” in the Philippines.
PLDT VP Nico Alcoseba said the company is “set to build” a data center that is designed to serve the “massive power and IT requirements of global hyperscalers.”
The facility will have more power capacity than all of PLDT’s existing data centers combined, and will be a Tier-3 certified structure and Tier-4 ready once it starts operations.
PLDT officials were unavailable when sought for further details about the project.
“We are very optimistic and bullish about the hyperscaler demand in the enterprise sector. To support the growing needs of global technology giants and cloud service providers expanding in the region, we at the PLDT Group are proud to announce that we will be building the first hyperscaler data center facility in the Philippines,” Alcoseba said in a statement.
PLDT is also “further enhancing its network of data centers” concurrent to the construction of a new facility.
“We at PLDT are continuously enhancing our existing data centers in three main ways. First, we are adding more power capacity per rack to support the dense and high-powered equipment of hyperscalers.
Second, we’re further enhancing the reliability and energy efficiency of our data center facilities. And last, we’re also looking for ways to deliver renewable energy to support the carbon neutrality commitments of these companies.”
Currently, PLDT has 10 Vitro Data Centers across the country. These facilities are supported by the 524,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables spread across the Philippines.
They are also linked to the 14 international undersea cable systems and one terrestrial system that carry data in and out of the Philippines.
MNP services
Smart Communications Inc., a subsidiary of PLDT, said it expects to further grow the user base of its GigaLife mobile application following the implementation of the mobile number portability (MNP) services recently.
Jane Basas, an SVP at Smart, said the GigaLife app recently reached its 10-million user milestone, and this is expected to rise as the company expects to acquire more users through the MNP.
“With MNP, more mobile users can finally make the Smart move and experience the country’s fastest mobile data network without the hassles that go with changing one’s mobile number—such as having to import contacts and inform your circles, as well as relinking digital subscriptions and e-wallets,” she said.
The MNP service essentially allows subscribers to shift from one network provider to another without changing their mobile numbers.
Smart claims to have the widest 5G coverage in the Philippines with over 4,400 5G sites deployed across 4,000 locations.