Submarine cable outage disrupts internet across PH providers

Internet users across the Philippines experienced slow and intermittent connectivity on Friday, October 2, following a reported outage of submarine cable segments linking the country to Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda said they are still working to pin down what caused the break.

He floated a few possibilities, ranging from accidental fiber damage to equipment malfunction, while not ruling out deliberate sabotage. He was careful to note that nothing has been confirmed yet.

Aguda said the outage wiped out roughly 300 gigabits of capacity, though PLDT has told him its network can absorb the shortfall without major issues. He also pointed out that service hasn’t gone dark entirely, just slower, as providers work around the gap.

The disruption was enough to prompt some schools and institutions to send out their own connectivity warnings. Still, Aguda maintained that no critical systems appear to have taken a significant hit so far.