Julia Christine Botin

Converge doubles capex, building 2 major infra projects

Article (news)

Jekki Pascual

ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Fiber internet service provider Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. has raised its capital expenditures for this year by more than double compared to last year to between P20 to 25 billion from last year’s P9.3 billion. Converge CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy said the company has major infrastructure projects this year. First are two international subsea cable systems, and the second are two data centers which are expected to be completed before the end of 2025.The two new data centers are located in Caloocan and Pampanga. While the subsea cable systems- the Bifrost cable system and the Southeast Asia-Hong Kong-Hainan Express system- will go online this year. “The data center we are building now is for the digital transformation of the enterprise segment and the public sector, including our expansion for the consumer side. You can see our IPTV. In the future we are going to do cloud gaming and do virtual computers,” said Uy. Converge Chief Finance Officer Robert Yu said Converge will still allot around P10 billion for the usual budget and expansion plans, but a bigger amount will be for the two major projects. “We have P12 billion associated with our international subsea cables- that’s approximately P7 billion and then P5 billion for the two data centers this year,” Robert Yu said. This is aligned with the company’s goal of hitting 4 million subscribers by 2027. By the end of 2024, it hit 2.56 million subscribers and they have a capacity for 8 million. Converge has partnered with Sky to provide fiber technology last year and it is also open for partnership with other firms. Converge is also beefing up its enterprise segment by providing connectivity and digital solutions to various companies including hotels and a hospital. In 2024, its SME or small and medium-sized enterprises sub-segment grew 48% year on year.<div><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hOXzTIm61CI?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe> </div>

Converge CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy said the company has major infrastructure projects this year.

Converge CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy said the company has major infrastructure projects this year.