New submarine cable to spur growth of SE Asia, US markets

Companies in Southeast Asia and North America will have a good reason to be optimistic about regional business expansions with the installation of the 20,000-kilometre submarine cable in the Pacific.

Telstra, the largest capacity owner of Asia American Gateway (AAG) consortium that built the first direct single cable connection, is now able to offer a new low latency route between the regions.

The submarine cable passes from Malaysia to the US via Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. The cable system also links into Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam.

The cable has an initial design capacity of 500 gigabits per second, with a design capacity of two terabits per second using field-tested DWDM technology.

On concerns about damages and service interruptions during natural disasters, the AAG cable connection has been designed to avoid the areas around the volatile Pacific Rim earthquake zone.

The cable is interconnected with Telstra's other Australia--US cable networks, which includes its wholly owned Telstra Endeavour system and capacity on Australia Japan Cable (AJC) and JUS.

Option against traditional routes

To provide customers with a viable option when choosing against traditional cable routes, Telstra will have a fibre pair in the AAG cable for its exclusive use between Hawaii and the West Coast of the US. This extends the reach of its Sydney-to-Hawaii Endeavour cable.

A low latency direct path to Hong Kong and other key destinations connecting via Guam and its capacity on the AJC will also be made available.

"Our AAG capacity will be integrated into the Telstra Global Next IP network reducing latency, while adding reliability and diversity to our market leading IP VPN, global Internet and global ethernet services including EPL, EVPL and VPLS, enabling our customers to benefit from our robust core assets," said Gina Nomellini, general manager, global products, Telstra International.

"The cable system will allow Telstra to further enhance its ability to provide the increasingly diverse and resilient services customers are demanding, especially from industries such as financial services, manufacturing and telecoms services," she added.

Formed in April 2007, the AAG consortium is composed of Australian, Asian and American telecommunications organisations.

A solutions provider offering end-to-end ICT solutions to enterprise customers and other service providers in the Asian markets, Telstra International Asia operates its headquarters in Hong Kong and business offices in China, Singapore, Japan and India. It is a division of the leading Australian-based, tier 1 telecommunications and media services company, Telstra Corporation.