MANILA — Globe Telecom, Inc. said it has restored internet services in areas affected by a disruption along an international submarine cable linking the Philippines and Singapore, although repairs to the damaged fiber are expected to take several weeks.

The Philippine telecommunications company said it rerouted data traffic through alternative international links over the weekend after the disruption reduced available bandwidth and slowed internet speeds.

“Our teams are working continuously to ease congestion and restore normal internet service as quickly as possible. In parallel, we are working with our partners to validate the cause of the disruption,” Globe Head of Service Planning and Engineering Joel R. Agustin said in a media release on Sunday.

Internet services were disrupted over the weekend after the submarine cable between the Philippines and Singapore was cut, prompting Globe, PLDT Inc., and Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. — three of the country's major connectivity providers — to reroute traffic through alternative links.

Globe said repairs to the submarine fiber are expected to be completed within the next few weeks. Undersea cable faults of this kind typically require a specialized cable ship to locate the break, recover the damaged section from the seabed, splice in replacement fiber, and run tests before full capacity is restored — a process that can take weeks depending on the fault's location, water depth, weather conditions, and vessel availability. The cause of the cut has yet to be confirmed, so both the outcome of Globe's validation work with its partners and the completion of the ship-based repair bear watching as the route works back toward full capacity.

Submarine fiber-optic cables carry the vast majority of international data traffic between countries, and Singapore serves as one of Southeast Asia's principal connectivity hubs for routes to and from the Philippines. Cuts along such routes commonly result in reduced bandwidth and slower speeds for users until operators shift traffic onto other cable systems, as Philippine providers did in this case. The episode also shows why that redundancy matters: because alternative links absorbed the displaced traffic, Globe was able to restore service even though the physical repair remains weeks away.

The company also said its primary information technology (IT) systems were operating normally after an earlier issue affected access to some applications, particularly logins using Android devices.

“Globe's primary IT systems are normal and operational. An earlier issue affecting access to some applications particularly during login using Android phones has been resolved quickly,” it said.

The report was originally published by BusinessWorld on Oct. 4, 2026. Original article: Globe restores internet services after subsea cable disruption. — Ashley Erika O. Jose