Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : $500 million underwater fiber network to link Asia, America

[UFBSolutions]

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

[cywkevin]

Bought damn time.

[boonchuan]

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!

[cspence]

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

[feomateo]

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

[HE/LW-Sam]

Great news!!

[liandra]

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...

[boonchuan]

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

Originally Posted by liandra

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...

[liandra]

Originally Posted by boonchuan

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.

[martymart]

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/stori...253789/1/.html

Cheers

Marty

[Tsohxert]

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

[MatthewN]

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

[TieuDieuTu]

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

Originally Posted by feomateo

At least there will be better datacenters in Asia for those of us who needs it
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.

[DSD-Dan]

Originally Posted by TieuDieuTu

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

[HD Fanatic]

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