Regarded as a fast-growing digital economy and backed by a strong digital roadmap, the Philippines proves to be an ideal investment destination for global hyperscalers or the massive international companies that dominate the cloud service sector.
Being one of the early adopters of 5G in the Asia Pacific region and tagged as a second ‘overperformer’ by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in terms of readiness for frontier technology use, the country has the potential to become a valuable cloud region that could provide vast opportunities to global tech giants.
The Philippines boasts of an enticing demographic having the second-largest and one of the youngest populations in Southeast Asia. It also has a literacy rate of 91.6 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which is among the highest in the world.
A report from We Are Social also showed that the country has unparalleled mobile penetration of 152.4 mobile connections and 67 percent internet penetration. Last year, the country also marked more than 4.2 million additional internet users which, overall, spend an average of 10.5 hours online, the longest time spent globally.
Likewise, the said report found that businesses have also been adaptive to the digital transformation with 80 percent e-commerce adoption. Market and consumer data provider Statista also estimated that e-commerce users will rise to 55.8 million users by 2025.
In this regard, PLDT — the largest fully integrated telecommunications company in the Philippines — has been ramping up its network and data center infrastructure to continuously increase the country’s attractiveness to more hyperscalers. To date, PLDT is already servicing a number of international content and cloud service providers by hosting their colocation, cloud, and connectivity requirements in its VITRO Data Center network.
The group — through its ICT arm ePLDT — currently owns a network of 10 globally certified VITRO data center facilities strategically located across the country, with a total capacity of 80MW and over 9,000 racks. Since the network is as essential as data center reliability, all VITRO data center facilities are carrier-neutral, allowing other telcos both foreign and local to provide network connections based on customer preference and resiliency considerations.
“We believe that the Philippines has become an ideal data center location for global hyperscalers and that it is an emerging regional hub in Asia, which is why we at PLDT are continuously strengthening our infrastructure and network capabilities to support the hyperscale requirements of international tech giants,” according to Jojo Gendrano, FVP & Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups.
The company has been rolling out initiatives to boost its network infrastructure, such as the completion of the Jupiter Cable system that is expected to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2022. This will expand PLDT’s existing international bandwidth capacity of 16 Terabit/s with an additional 39.2 terabits. Its wireless subsidiary Smart, meanwhile, has already introduced its 5G services that provide faster data, less latency, and less interference for better efficiency.
“With our robust domestic and international network infrastructure in place and data centers at par with the technologically developed countries, PLDT serves as the gateway to bridge more global cloud service providers and content providers to the Philippines, further making it the new hyperscaler destination,” Gendrano added.
In support of such a thrust, PLDT’s B2B arm PLDT Enterprise launched a campaign that highlights the country’s capabilities as an emerging market suited for international technological companies on the lookout for expansion amid the fast-growing demand for digital services.
This video captures why the Philippines has emerged as the next important destination for hyperscalers: