Philippines operator Globe Telecom has joined the Candle subsea cable consortium.

Announced last year, the 8,000km (4,970 miles), 24-fiber pair Candle system is set to connect Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The system is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.

SoftBank and Meta are leading the project alongside Telekom Malaysia, Japan’s IPS, and Indonesia’s XLSmart.

Local press reports that Globe Telecom has joined the consortium and will land the cable at its Nasugbu cable landing station (CLS), as one of two Filipino landing points for Candle.

According to Submarine Networks, Global built the Nasugbu landing station in Aurora in 2001 and hosts the Southeast Asia Japan Cable and C2C cables (the latter is part of the EAC-C2C system). PLDT also has a cable landing station in Nasugbu.

IPS’ Infinivan is the landing party in Baler, Philippines.

“Candle raises the bar for the country’s digital backbone. With the Nasugbu and Baler landings, we are giving enterprises a more resilient path for cloud workloads, AI development, and global operations,” Globe business head KD Dizon said in a statement.

In Japan, Candle is set to land at SoftBank’s Maruyama landing station in Minamiboso City. The cable will land at Toucheng in Taiwan, Batam in Indonesia, Tj Sedili near Johor in Malaysia, and Changi North in Singapore.