AAG cable to boost Asia’s internet capacity in August
BANGKOK (thaivisa.com)
In just a few weeks internet users throughout Asia should start to see a dramatic increase in internet speed for websites located outside of the region when the $US550 million Asia-America Gateway (AAG) comes into operation.
The new 20,000km (about 12,400 miles) AAG - an optical fibre cable network stretching from Malaysia to the West Coast of America via Guam and Hawaii - is due to commence operating in August.
The cable has additional landing points in Hong Kong and the Philippines, with branches to Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam.
The proposed cable became a reality in June 2006, when AiTi of Brunei Darussalam, CAT Telecom (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), REACH (Hong Kong), StarHub (Singapore), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam) all signed a Memorandun Of Understanding (MOU) for its construction.
In addition to being one of the longest undersea cable rollouts in history, the AAG will actually shorten the route for data from Asia to America, avoiding some of the wolds’ areas most prone to seismic activity in the process.
The demand for better quality communications services throughout Asia has been an ongoing battle between foreign and local businesses and regional communications carriers, and one that has affected economic growth in some countries.
The AAG will will use the latest Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technologies with a minimum design capacity of 1.28 terabit/s and a design capacity of 1.92 terabit/s.
The last of the undersea cable work was completed in June and all 10 landing points were completed months ago.
The new cable will improve e-commerce traffic and help meet the increasing demand for faster and more reliable internet, video and other multimedia services and applications.