PLDT and Converge ICT Solutions have rerouted internet traffic after a submarine cable cut between the Philippines and Singapore affected connections across the country on Friday, October 2.
PLDT said in a 9:30 p.m. advisory that the cut had affected services nationwide. The telco said it had successfully rerouted most of the affected traffic and expected service to normalize shortly.
Converge followed with an update at 11:05 p.m., saying its internet and data traffic to and from Singapore had been rerouted through other submarine cables. Its technical teams were continuing to monitor connections to apps and websites hosted in Singapore.
Earlier in the day, the UP Diliman Network Helpdesk (DilNet) said it had been informed that an undersea cable segment between the Philippines and Singapore was offline. It warned of higher latency and intermittent performance, particularly when accessing services hosted outside the country, and said other Philippine ISPs and telcos could experience similar slowdowns depending on their international routes.
Independent network measurements also showed unusually high latency between the two countries. CableStatus, using RIPE Atlas measurements from 28 independent anchors, reported average Philippines-Singapore transit latency of about 177 milliseconds from 3 p.m. Philippine time, compared with a recent baseline of roughly 53 milliseconds. The service cautioned that its measurements showed a transit delay and did not identify a specific damaged cable.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is investigating the cause of the disruption. Secretary Henry Aguda told GMA News that authorities were still determining what happened and that it was too early to draw conclusions.
Aguda said possible sabotage was among the scenarios being considered, but also pointed to natural causes or equipment failure as possibilities. He said there were no reports at the time of critical infrastructure being significantly affected.
Aguda also said PLDT had told him that around “300 gig” of capacity was lost, but that the company had enough additional capacity to cover the reduction. PLDT later confirmed that it had rerouted most affected traffic.
GMA News separately reported that Pampanga Digital Evolution Company (PADECO) had also identified a Philippines-Hong Kong submarine cable segment as affected.
Neither PLDT, Converge, nor the DICT has publicly identified the specific submarine cable system involved in the Philippines-Singapore cut.