US and Asia get direct cable link

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC are to jointly deploy the first direct terabit submarine cable network between Southeast Asia and the US.

Spanning over 20,000km, the Asia America Gateway will link Malaysia to the US via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the west coast of the US.

The $500m project is scheduled to be completed by late 2008 and will deliver a cable network spanning almost half the length of the equator.

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC will design, manufacture, install, integrate and commission the full network.

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

The new network is expected to help meet the explosive growth in bandwidth requirements for new and upcoming internet applications such as instant messaging, video, data and other multimedia services.

In addition to an alternative to the conventional cable routes, which are normally connected via North Asia, the Asia America Gateway will provide a direct link between the US and other Asian countries via a single cable.

It will also be able to be expanded in the future to Australia, India, Africa, and Europe.