The Philippines' new undersea internet cable network is expected to bring jobs to remote islands, boosting the country's BPO sector, which employed 1.7M in 2023
Project expected to bring stable internet and new jobs to more remote islands — InfiniVAN holds a cable pulling ceremony on the island of Boracay in November 2022. X: @nikkeiasia X: @nikkeiasia : Philippines' undersea cable network to boost call center industry Major cities like Manila and Cebu already have relatively stable internet access. But the Philippines consists of over 7,100 islands, and more remote areas often lack stable connections. https://asia.nikkei.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The network extends a connectivity push beyond Manila and Cebu, where service was already relatively stable, to islands that have been less able to support online work. It arrives as the country seeks to protect its position in outsourcing amid the talent, competitive and AI pressures described in the earlier account of its BPO challenge.
It also follows proposed Philippines-linked subsea capacity from major technology companies, including Facebook and Amazon's planned Philippines–California cable. This project matters because it ties local access infrastructure directly to the geographic reach of the country's established BPO labor market.
First-order effects
- Remote islands served by InfiniVAN's network should gain more stable connectivity, removing a basic operational barrier for internet-dependent employers and workers.
- The Philippine BPO sector gains a wider potential pool of work locations and employees beyond its established urban centers; local job creation remains contingent on providers actually placing work there.
Second-order effects
- BPO operators and telecom providers may face stronger pressure to build local recruitment, facilities and last-mile service around newly connected islands, rather than concentrating capacity in Manila and Cebu.
- More geographically distributed delivery could make location reliability and connectivity quality more important competitive factors for outsourcing contracts, alongside labor availability.
Third-order effects
- If cable-backed connectivity is paired with sustained local service investment, the Philippines' outsourcing footprint could become less concentrated in a few cities and more resilient to localized disruptions.
- The project is one example of subsea networks becoming an economic-development input, not solely international backbone capacity; the durable outcome will depend on whether access reaches employers and households beyond the cable landing points.
The trend: Subsea connectivity is increasingly being used to widen the geography of digital-service labor markets, linking infrastructure deployment to where online work can be performed.