Telstra takes stake in new Asia-US cable

Stuart Corner
Monday, 30 April 2007 12:19

Business IT - Networking

Ten organisations, including Telstra, have signed contracts with Alcatel-Lucent and NEC to build the $US500m Asia America Gateway (AAG) cable, the first direct terabit submarine cable network between Southeast Asia and the United States.

Spanning over 20,000 km, AAG will link Malaysia to the US via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the West coast of the US. It will have an initial capacity of 480Gbps.

The turnkey contract, worth approximately $US500 million, was signed with a consortium formed by the Government of Brunei, AT&T, Bharti (India), CAT (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), PT Telkom (Indonesia), Telekom Malaysia, Telstra, StarHub (Singapore) and VNPT (Vietnam).

Telekom Malaysia is the lead player in the consortium and will hold nine percent of the equity in the project. "While we are present in 13 countries in the region and involved in seven existing major submarine cable consortiums, this initiative is still one of the biggest we have undertaken. It will provide TM with additional 60Gbps of capacity, which will help reduce any future potential congestion we may face," TM group chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Wahid Omar said.

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC will design, manufacture, install, integrate and commission the full network on a turnkey basis. The project is scheduled to be completed by late 2008.

In addition to providing full network diversity from the conventional cable routes, which are normally connected via North Asia, AAG will provide a seamless direct link between the US and other Asian countries via one single cable. It also has the ability to be expanded to Australia, India, Africa, and Europe.