PLDT has announced that the operator of the international trans-Pacific submarine cable system Asia-America Gateway (AAG) will be doing emergency work on their Asia-America Gateway submarine cables starting on September 25 all the way to September 30.

The AAG is a US$553.63-million, 20,000-kilometer long fiber optic cable network that connects the Philippines to the US. It also connects Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast.

While PLDT isn’t the operator of the AAG, it’s one of its biggest customers in the Philippines, so there is a possibilty that there may be slow downs and interruptions during the 5-day repair period for both PLDT and Smart subscribers as it relates to their internet speeds and connectivity.

PLDT is reassuring its customers though that there are systems in place to minimize the impact of the maintenance work that includes traffic rerouting and local caching

“We wish to assure our customers of continued connectivity, as we have alternative cable systems to keep our services going during this maintenance period of AAG,” the company said in a release.

“Should there be internet traffic spike beyond the traffic of the past weeks, some slowing down in the busiest hours for traffic going to Asia may be experienced, but no service will be denied, and internet traffic within the Philippines and to the US will not be impacted,” PLDT added.

PLDT points out that this emergency maintenance is necessary for aiding Filipino netizens internet consumption habits as they note that a bulk of the content they consume comes from overseas.

Source: 1