Globe Telecom's Strategic Stake in Candle Cable Powers Philippines' Rise as Asia-Pacific Digital Hub
Globe Telecom has joined the Candle Submarine Cable System consortium with a strategic stake, aiming to fortify the Philippines' role as a key digital hub in Asia-Pacific.
The 8,000km subsea cable will directly link the Philippines' Nasugbu landing station to Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, providing high-speed, low-latency connectivity.
Boosting National Digital Infrastructure
This move significantly enhances the Philippines' international bandwidth capacity, crucial for handling surging data traffic from AI, cloud computing, and 5G adoption.
It aligns with government efforts to accelerate digital transformation and adopt a cloud-first strategy, addressing the country's digital readiness score of 59 on BMI's 2026 index.
The Philippine cloud market is projected to surge from $1.8 billion in 2025 to $9.1 billion by 2031, boasting a 30.5% CAGR, while data center capacity doubles to 258.6MW by 2029.
Project History and Consortium Partners
Announced in late 2025, the Candle Cable project involves regional telcos and hyperscalers like SoftBank, Meta, IPS, and XLSmart.
Globe Telecom, a leading Philippine operator, serves as both investor and cable landing station partner, building on its history of infrastructure investments.
Future Implications and Resilience
Targeted for a 2028 launch, the cable promises resilient networks amid growing enterprise demand for data and cloud services.
Despite potential cost hikes from 2026 geopolitical tensions, such as Middle East conflicts, subsea investments are expected to persist, with the global market hitting $5.1 billion in 2025 at 108% YoY growth.
Overall, this stake positions the Philippines favorably through diversified routes, policy support, and geographic advantages, solidifying its emerging digital hub status.
