Internet users in Asia and the US should experience higher data throughput speeds between the two regions when the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) comes into operation next month.
Constructed at a cost of more than US$550 million, the 20,000km (about 12,400 miles) optic cable is one of the longest cable rollouts in history, beginning in Malaysia and having landing points in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii, with branches to Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam.
The new cable is being funded by AITI Brunei Darussalam, CAT Telecom (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), REACH Networks (Hong Kong), StarHub (Singapore), Telekom Malaysia, and VNPT (Vietnam).
The last of the undersea cable work was completed in June and all 10 landing points were completed months ago.
Poor quality communications throughout Asia has been an ongoing problem that has retarded development throughout the region, but with a design capacity of 1.92 terabit/s the new AAG is expected to have sufficient capacity to meet the regions ever increasing demand for several years to come.
Using the latest Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technologies, regional carriers expect the AAG to boost e-commerce traffic, as well as well as provide sufficient bandwidth to meet that needed for the increasing amounts of video and other multimedia services and applications now being consumed throughout Asia.
Feature photo Submarine Cable Networks
He has spent extensive periods of time working in Africa and throughout Southeast Asia, with stints in the Middle East, the USA, and England.
He has covered major world events including Operation Desert Shield/ Storm, the 1991 pillage in Zaire, the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the 1999 East Timor independence unrest, the 2004 Asian tsunami, and the 2009, 2010, and 2014 Bangkok political protests.
In 1995 he was a Walkley Award finalist, the highest awards in Australian journalism, for his coverage of the 1995 Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) Ebola outbreak.
Most recently he was the Thailand editor/ managing editor of AEC News Today . Prior to that he was the deputy editor and Thailand and Greater Mekong Sub-region editor for The Establishment Post, predecessor of Asean Today.
In the mid-80s and early 90s he owned JLF Promotions, the largest above and below the line marketing and PR firm servicing the high-technology industry in Australia. It was sold in 1995.
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