A multinational consortium will build the first high-bandwidth optical fibre submarine cable system linking Southeast Asia and the United States at a cost of 500 million US dollars, a member said Friday.
Singapore telecom operator StarHub, which is part of the 17-member group, said the system, called the Asia-America Gateway (AAG), is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Spanning 20,000 kilometres (12,400 miles), the cable system will connect Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast, StarHub said in a statement.

It will also provide "seamless interconnection" with other regions like Europe, Australia, Africa and other parts of Asia.

The new cable system will provide a capacity of up to 1.92 terabits per second of data bandwidth which should help meet the increasing need for faster and more reliable Internet, video, data and other multimedia services.

For example, the new system can support 130,000 high definition televison signals simultaneously, the statement said.

The cable system is also designed to provide an "alternative and more secure link" between Southeast Asia and the United States and complement existing networks like the APCN2 and the Japan-US Cable Network.

"This low-risk route was designed to avoid the volatile and hazardous Pacific Ring, thus mitigating the effects from natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, which have previously damaged submarine cable systems resulting in major disruptions to international Internet links," it said.

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake off Taiwan in December damaged international underwater cable links, sparking widespread communications disruption across the region.

StarHub chief executive Terry Clontz said that "with the recent events of undersea cable cuts and earthquakes, this system provides much needed international route diversity to minimise service disruptions."

The consortium members include AT and T of the United States, British Telecom, Thailand's CAT Telekom, Eastern Telecom of the Philippines, the Brunei government, PT Indosat of Indonesia and Cambodia's PCP Company Ltd.

It also includes India's Bharti, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co, Saigon Postel Corp, Australia's Telstra, TELKOM Indonesia, Telecom New Zealand, Telekom Malaysia, Viettel of Vietnam, and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group.

http://www.physorg.com/news96899094.html

Bought damn time.

This is really great news for us here in South East Asia, I remembered the Taiwan earthquake and the aftermath. An alternative route would simply be Great!

This is great, now spam will arrive to the US faster.

At least there will be better datacenters in Asia for those of us who needs it :stickout:
Though 500 million dollars is awfully expensive ;)

Great news!!

great news for people in south east asia...
also for... uhm.. uhmm... torrent website owner... since they can have a good datacenter in pirate heaven of south east asia instead of european datacenter... and untouchable from ICE, RIAA, MPAA hands...

I can't say for the rest of the countries, but try that in Singapore, it is a criminal offence with heavy punishments.

great news for people in south east asia...
also for... uhm.. uhmm... torrent website owner... since they can have a good datacenter in pirate heaven of south east asia instead of european datacenter... and untouchable from ICE, RIAA, MPAA hands...

I can't say for the rest of the countries, but try that in Singapore, it is a criminal offence with heavy punishments.

hi boonchuan,
sorry if I offense you in anyway,..
yes, not all country in SEA are piracy friendly, some of them are...
and I used to live in one of those country in SEA where piracy is everywhere, where you can get pirated copies of software, musics, videos easily (on every corner of street, mall, trading centers,etc)
and I also have some friends from other SEA countries who says the same thing.

Hiya

You don't have to get involved in piracy or illegal activities to be in trouble in South East Asia. "Defaming" other parties via blogs would do enough damage.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/253789/1/.html

Cheers

Marty

This is something I hadn't heard about. I have no opinion on the matter, however, I can say this will benefit alot of the people in SEA. It's a very big move, as well as turning point for the individuals in SEA

This will be great from a network connectivity point of view. We see most connectivity issues from that side of the world. Hopefully this can rid those :)

Does anyone knows when will the construction start and what's the estimated end date will be?

At least there will be better datacenters in Asia for those of us who needs it :stickout:
Though 500 million dollars is awfully expensive ;)
It's not that expensive if you look at it from another prospective. The Seattle Super Sonics (an NBA basketball team) wanted an 18,500-seat basketball area for $500 million.

I do believe that laying 20,000 km of fibre optic cables under the Pacific Ocean is much more difficult than building a basketball arena.

I do believe that laying 20,000 km of fibre optic cables under the Pacific Ocean is much more difficult than building a basketball arena.

It's also a lot more useful :)

Great news. Does this mean most US bandwidth providers will be using that new link after it's completed?

Has anyone ever seen where the fiber comes in anywhere? I'm just curious about it.

I can't say for the rest of the countries, but try that in Singapore, it is a criminal offence with heavy punishments.
Not to veer off topic but I've heard Singapore delegates THE harshest punishments for crimes otherwise not so harsh in other countries.

The punishments are harsh, but we have a transparent and efficient legal system in place.

Not to veer off topic but I've heard Singapore delegates THE harshest punishments for crimes otherwise not so harsh in other countries.

I don't like those dang communist getting their hands on parts of the network but it'll be good for everybody in the long run.

Singapore will cane you for vandalism... ouch! Heck I wish they'd start caning the Grafitti "artists" out here in the USA as well.

Singapore really does cross their Ps and Qs, cleanest streets in the world due to the harsh punishments for littering.

First-time offenders who drop what the environment ministry calls "minor" litter -- a cigarette butt, bus ticket, sweet wrapper or matchstick -- face a fine of up to S$1000 (US$545) and litter counselling.

Repeat minor offenders, and all major offenders -- those who illegally discard a softdrink can and anything else not on the minor list -- are fined $2000 and slapped with a CWO.

I don't like those dang communist getting their hands on parts of the network but it'll be good for everybody in the long run.

Singapore will cane you for vandalism... ouch! Heck I wish they'd start caning the Grafitti "artists" out here in the USA as well.

Singapore really does cross their Ps and Qs, cleanest streets in the world due to the harsh punishments for littering.

Death punishment for possession of drugs or marijuana, so be very careful, even if you only transit in their international airport, and you get caught... death penalty is waiting for you....

If you happen to be in Singapore airport and someone ask you to watch his/her bag, don't do it...
you'll get yourself into trouble.

I thought there are no countries with death penalties anymore...

We need as fast connection! I'm over here in Taiwan and for the most part internet is fast, but ping in games is just terrible. I have like 250 ping average when playing online FPS games on US servers.

We need as fast connection! I'm over here in Taiwan and for the most part internet is fast, but ping in games is just terrible. I have like 250 ping average when playing online FPS games on US servers.

Unfortunately, the speed of light is going to get in your way: http://www.google.com/search?q=20%2C000km%2Fc And that's assuming no repeaters and no interim equipment. But there will always be delays, so you might see a boost from 250 to 150ms, but don't expect magically great pings :)

I thought there are no countries with death penalties anymore...
fortunately/unfortunately there are quite a few out there ;)

Good to hear about this news.

Death penalties suck but the fiber network project is a really good initiative... I do not know which country needs it the most... I mean when I was in USA this summer a lot of people I met there were not really happy with their connection... I've never been anywhere in Asia though...

This is great, now spam will arrive to the US faster.

bahaha =) your funny.

500mill seems on the cheap side.

How ever you take it, but this project is going to benefit all, and its not just the hosting companies, there are other uses too, there are corporates too utilising network for different needs, like last year I had setup AS2 connection for one of the vendor for GAP Inc, here in New Delhi, it was then that I noticed that one of their invoice distribution/solution server is in Singapore while the solution provider is from USA.

Not to veer off topic but I've heard Singapore delegates THE harshest punishments for crimes otherwise not so harsh in other countries.

Considering Singapore is near nations that are er, infamous, in certain outlawed trades.. I'm not surprised at the laws.

I just can't wait for this too be ready. But I think we shouldn't expect this any time soon.

Btw, I heard that you cannot chew gum in Singapore :p

This is great, now spam will arrive to the US faster.

LOL! hahahahaahaha good point!! I was thinking how much this is going to reduce the time of pings from my servers to asia, and your reply was a reality check!!!
hahahahahah

Anyway, that's a lot of money, but I'm sure it will help to provide fastest connections

From the looks of it I would say the plan is for ATT to provide peering across this link.

This is indeed good and bad news. It may be bad news for you US system admins as labour is way cheaper in Asian countries than the states, and with connectivity this good a business has no reason to pay extra, however finally I will be able to access Asian servers quickly.

It may be bad news for you US system admins as labour is way cheaper in Asian countries than the states, and with connectivity this good a business has no reason to pay extra,

But you still have to take into consideration that it is easier to communicate with someone from the same cultural background.

But you still have to take into consideration that it is easier to communicate with someone from the same cultural background.

And that someone speaks Natively your language

Imagine being the tech in that submarine cable, out in the middle of the ocean trying to make repairs.. lol I'd love to see that job listing ad.

- Must not be afraid of sharks
- Can diagnose network issues with snorkle
- Can understand basic sign language for techies
- Is not claustrophobic

:D

Damn, that is some serious money for a single wire but a good technological feet.

Thats a lot of money... and a lot of fibre....

hi boonchuan,
sorry if I offense you in anyway,..
yes, not all country in SEA are piracy friendly, some of them are...
and I used to live in one of those country in SEA where piracy is everywhere, where you can get pirated copies of software, musics, videos easily (on every corner of street, mall, trading centers,etc)
and I also have some friends from other SEA countries who says the same thing.


what country is this?

It's also a lot more useful :)

Not for basketball players :-/

I thought there are no countries with death penalties anymore...

I don't mean to go off topic, but there are still many states in the US that have the death penalty.

That's why they say, don't mess with Texas :P

We sign-up a lot of Asian customers due to the low latency to our Peer 1 facility in Los Angeles. I think this will only help matters! One step closer to making the world smaller and smaller :)

lol, now USA get spammed faster!

This is great, now spam will arrive to the US faster.

Hahaha, thats EXACTLY my first thought when I read the title of the thread!!

Imagine being the tech in that submarine cable, out in the middle of the ocean trying to make repairs.. lol I'd love to see that job listing ad.

- Must not be afraid of sharks
- Can diagnose network issues with snorkle
- Can understand basic sign language for techies
- Is not claustrophobic

:D

- Can withstand thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch of your body

To the handful of people stating how spam will arrive here quicker... do you realize that the US is the largest source of spam? Unless things have changed dramatically since early 2007 and now.

I seriously doubt that. The fact is that in my own experience Most of the spam and hack attempts to our servers come from foreign locations.

Do you have an actual source for your comment?

Most spam we get, (or that gets picked up) does indeed come from areas like asia, where there are less pro-active anti spam measures being taken by the datacentres.

I seriously doubt that. The fact is that in my own experience Most of the spam and hack attempts to our servers come from foreign locations.

Do you have an actual source for your comment?

While the actual spammers themselves (as an individual) may reside outside the US, they certainly favor US networks.


http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso

http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2004/02/sa_dirtydozen.html

http://www.tqmcube.com/origins.php

http://www.cmsconnect.com/XEFPro/Lib/XEFSpamPercent.htm

http://www.linuxmagic.com/products/bms/statistics

-Mike

great news. will effect asian economy positively.

What about the western one?

Here are some similar news to feed you, maybe a bit old but effective:

VSNL inks MoU for marine cable link to Middle East, West Europe (http://www.tata.com/vsnl/media/20061026.htm)
Tata group signs MoU on submarine cable links (http://www.tata.com/vsnl/media/20061023.htm)
VSNL to invest $200 mn (http://www.tata.com/vsnl/media/20060829.htm)
VSNL to invest $600 mn in Europe, Asia cables (http://www.tata.com/vsnl/media/20060825.htm)
VSNL's India-Europe network to be ready soon, to cost $200m (http://www.tata.com/vsnl/media/20060824.htm)

It is very hard to know the spammer location since using server relays /proxies from different countries is a common practice.

wow, i wish to download gigs of file from rapidshare using this link. thanks

wow...
cant wait for it to come up
:D:D:D

This news is great. I can use it as a good selling point to my Asian customers.

Most spam we get, (or that gets picked up) does indeed come from areas like asia, where there are less pro-active anti spam measures being taken by the datacentres.

This is mostly due to the fact that there are more insecure systems in countries like china, where vulnerabilities go unpatched because they are running pirated software and do not have access to updates.

I wonder why the capacity is so small. I can pass ~2Tbit over 6 strands. I would hope for $500mill they'd be laying alot more then that. I wonder if it has something to do with distances, lack of regen huts, etc...

This is mostly due to the fact that there are more insecure systems in countries like china, where vulnerabilities go unpatched because they are running pirated software and do not have access to updates.

Gee, thanks Microsoft.

Gee, thanks Microsoft.
Gee, thanks pirates.

Gee, thanks pirates.
Yeah, I mean, do you honestly expect Microsoft to support pirated versions of their software?

Piracy is one of the main reason behind Microsoft's success.

It is nice to see some added redundancy for the Asian region.

Is there anywhere we can see status of this?

This is great it will help to export more US joobs to other country's.

Way to good!

lol!

lol telecom nz they will have the cable but wont provide the service. worst isp in the pacfic

We don't want a scenario like this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7218008.stm), do we?!

good news thank u very much