Philippines-headquartered telecommunications service provider Converge ICT Solutions has reportedly said it is set to activate before the end of the year two subsea cable systems that would link the Philippines to other connection points in the Asia-Pacific region.
Local news service the Manila Bulletin reports that Converge CEO Dennis Anthony Uy has said the company will activate the Bifrost Cable System and the Southeast Asia Hainan-Hong Kong Express Cable System (SEA H2X) in December.
Bifrost is a 20,000-kilometre subsea cable system with a capacity of up to 15 terabits per second (Tbps); it was announced as ready for service earlier this month.
We reported in August that Converge had landed the Philippines branch of the trans-pacific Bifrost Cable System at its cable landing station in Davao, where the subsea cable connects the country to Singapore, Indonesia, Guam, and the west coast of the United States.
Also scheduled for switch-on is the SEA H2X, a 5,000-kilometre cable with a design capacity of 160 Tbps. This cable will link the Philippines via a connecting point in La Union to China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Meanwhile plans for Grid Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) of Greece to expand its international network could make the Greek island of Crete a major digital hub linking Europe, Africa and Asia.
Grid Telecom has already invested in infrastructure to transform Crete into a strategic axis for data traffic in the Eastern Mediterranean, interconnecting Crete with the Greek mainland, and providing an alternative low-latency route to Milan and other Western European destinations. Cables introduced in service in May 2025 also promise an express path to the Balkans and beyond.
However, Grid Telecom also co-owns the Crete branch of the 2Africa system, the world’s longest subsea fibre cable, which was landed on Crete in February this year, connecting 33 countries and 46 landing points across Europe, Africa, and Asia, spanning 45,000 kilometres, and supporting 18 Tb/s capacity per fibre-pair or more, on key segments in the Mediterranean.
It now seems that, through partnerships with Telecom Egypt and other stakeholders, Grid Telecom is preparing to deliver robust international capacity eastwards to the Middle East and westwards to major European destinations, directly interconnecting Crete with Port Said in Egypt, Genoa, Marseille and beyond.
