1.92 Terabits of bandwidth soon

Update 11th November 2009:

THE Asia-America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable network announced the completion of its comprehensive test requirement for the project that will link Brunei and other Southeast Asian nations with East Asia and the United States.

In a press statement yesterday, Brunei’s Ministry of Communications said the completion of the project will now enable AAG to carry commercial traffic.

The AAG consortium was formed in April 2007, to build the 2 Tbit/s fibre optic submarine cable system.

To enable Brunei to participate in the consortium, a joint-venture agreement was signed on July 13 between His Majesty’s Government through its investment vehicle, Brooketon Sendirian Berhad, and the two telecommunication providers Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru) and DST Group, represented by DST International (B) Sdn Bhd.

The agreement was for the creation of Brunei International Gateway (BIG) to carry on the business of an investment holding and trading company. BIG participates in the AAG Submarine Cable Project operation.

Brunei Darussalam is one of the brand landing party with investments amounting to US$40 million, of which US$30 million is from the Brunei Government, US$5 million from Telekom Brunei Berhad and US$5 million from DST Group.

In a press statement, the ministry stated that the “fully operational AAG cable system is the first cable system ever to link Southeast Asia direct to the USA and will link Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Hong Kong and the Philippines direct to the United States, where it lands in Guam, Hawaii and California”.

The AAG is the first cable system of its kind to directly link the region to the US, consisting of a 20,000km fibre optic cable network that will connect 10 different locations in eight countries across the Asia Pacific region.

According to the project’s website, completion of the AAG is expected to “revolutionise high bandwidth delivery between Asia and the US”. Designed for broadband traffic, it will provide diversity in traditional routes to the US and ensure alternate routes, expanded capacity and high levels of service during potential disasters.

The AAG bypasses the most seismically volatile areas in volcanic and earthquake-prone “Pacific ring of fire”. Two of the main East Asia telecommunications arteries in the region, the SeaMeWe 3 (Southeast Asia Middle East Western Europe 3) and APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network 2) undersea cables, were damaged in December 2006 following a series of powerful earthquakes off the coast of Taiwan that disrupted Asia’s voice and data communications within the region and the rest of the world.

Officials of the consortium said the cable system is designed to provide a bandwidth capacity of up to 1.92 Terabits per second of data. The gateway allows future transmission facilities projects to be upgraded to support faster Internet and e-commerce traffic.

“Apart from linking the high growth Southeast Asia markets to the United States of America, the cable system also provides seamless connectivity to India, Europe and even Africa via common landing countries along its routes,” AAG said in a statement.

The Brunei Times

Earlier this week, there was a signing ceremony for a join venture agreement between the three parties involved in investing US$40 million in a new submarine cable called the Asia America Gateway which is slated to provide a pipe with a capacity of up to 1.92 Terabits per second of data bandwith between Asia and America. Does anyone know how many megabits equals 1 Terabit?

From the official press release:

The signing of the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) marks an important milestone towards the efficient running of an international submarine cable connecting South East Asia to the United States of America known as the “Asia America Gateway” (AAG). Under this JVA, The Brunei International Gateway Sdn Bhd (BIG) shall be established as a joint venture between the Government of His Majesty The Sultan And Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam through its investment vehicle namely, Brooketon Sendirian Berhad and the two telecommunication providers Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru) and DST Group represented by DST International (B) Sdn Bhd to carry on the business of an investment holding and trading company which would enable BIG to participate in the AAG Submarine Cable Project operation.

Brunei Darussalam is one of the Branch Landing party to the AAG with investments amounting to US$40 million of which US$30 million of the investment is invested by the Brunei Government, US$5 million by TelBru and US$5 million by DST Group. The AAG consists of a 20,000km long cable system that will connect 10 different locations in eight countries across the Asia Pacific region. The countries located are from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR, The Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the United States of America. The AAG will be the first cable system linking South East Asia directly with the United States of America.

The new cable system will provide a capacity of up to 1.92 Terabits per second of data bandwith which would help meet the increasing demand for faster and more reliable Internet, video and other multimedia services. The AAG will improve and e-commerce traffic and thus provide significant support for Brunei Darussalam’s efforts towards promoting e-government initiatives.