PLDT says browser experience restored following cable issues

Broadband service provider PLDT on June 6 said browser experience has been restored following reports of slow internet services in the afternoon of June 5.

"Our submarine cable partner confirms supplementing additional capacity, restoring browser experience," PLDT said in a Facebook post. "Please refresh your connection by restarting your router. Thank you."

Several local internet users took to Twitter to report that they couldn't access Google Suite services, YouTube, and Facebook from their location. Downdetector.com has likewise been receiving reports about Google's outage starting at 2:49 p.m. on June 5.

The problem was only encountered by those who have PLDT as their internet service provider (ISP), with the company's name climbing to the second spot on the top trending topics on Twitter Philippines in the evening.

To address the woes and foes of its internet subscribers, the telecommunication company released a statement confirming that the problem was in its cable partner which was experiencing losses in its bandwidth capacity.

“One of our submarine cable partners confirms a loss in some of its internet bandwidth capacity, and thus causing slower internet browsing,” PLDT wrote.

According to IT management firm Solar Winds, bandwidth refers to the capacity or speed at which a network can transmit data. It is measured by ISPs in megabits per second or Mbps.

The telco giant has not specified the reason why Google Suite and Facebook are the only websites affected by the outage.

(Editor's Note: This article has been edited to include PLDT's latest update.)