Subsea cable between the Philippines and Singapore severed, slowing nationwide internet — PLDT and Globe to restore by October 4

📌 On Friday, October 2, a section of the subsea cable connecting the Philippines and Singapore was cut, causing nationwide internet slowdowns and disruptions. Telcos rerouted traffic to other international lines, and on Sunday, October 4, PLDT and Globe announced that services had fully normalized.

■ What changes
· With the cable cut, international internet bandwidth was reduced, leading to slower speeds, latency, and intermittent disconnections, particularly when accessing sites and apps hosted on overseas servers.
· In a notice issued at 4:30 PM on October 4, PLDT announced that nationwide services had fully normalized.
· Globe also announced the full restoration of services for its mobile and fixed-line internet customers on the same day. It explained that systems were rebooted at the cable landing station in the Philippines, restoring traffic on the affected segment.
· Converge stated that it rerouted affected traffic to other subsea cables and continues to monitor connections to apps and sites with servers in Singapore.

■ Current status
· The cause and exact location of the cable break have not yet been officially announced. Globe stated that it is investigating the fault in coordination with overseas partners.
· Globe initially stated that repairing the subsea fiber optic cable could take several weeks.

■ Tips for residents and travelers
· If overseas sites and apps continue to run unusually slow, check the official pages of your telco for announcements first.
· If you have critical internet needs such as work or payments, having a backup SIM card or mobile data from another carrier can help you prepare for a single-line outage.

■ Sources
Inquirer(10/5), BusinessMirror(10/5)