Facebook To Invest In Fiber-Optic Cable Across Asia

Facebook announced last week that it will be investing in a US$450 million project to run an undersea fiber-optic cable across Asia.

AsianScientist (Jul. 9, 2012) – Facebook announced last week that it will be investing in a US$450 million project to run an undersea fiber-optic cable across Asia.

It declined, however, to reveal exactly how much money it had invested in the project.

“Our investment in this cable will help support our growth in South Asia, making it possible for us to provide a better user experience for a greater number of Facebook users in countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore,” said Facebook spokesman Charlene Chian.

The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) submarine cable system is scheduled to be ready in quarter three of 2014, and will run from Malaysia to South Korea and Japan with branches splitting off for other countries.

Partners in the consortium are TIME dotCom Berhad (TdC); China Mobile; China Telecom; China Unicom; Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom; Korea’s KT and LG Uplus; Japan’s NTT Communications; Singapore’s StarHub; Viettel Group; and the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group.

According to TdC, demand for bandwidth from Indo-China and Southeast Asia is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 44 percent, from around 2,862 Gbps in 2011 to an expected 24,000 Gbps in five years.

Using 40 giga-bit-per second (Gbps) optical transmission technology, the new undersea cable will reduce the number of hops data has to take, making downloads and uploads faster.

The APG is designed to handle a total capacity of 54.8 Tera-bits per second, but will also allow for 100 Gbps technology upgrades to meet dynamic traffic requirements in the future.

“Given that the APG will be the most advanced Intra-Asia cable system between with landing points in strategic locations, we can be the most competitive bandwidth provider in the region. The Group will now be able to provide the complete Internet connectivity route on its own assets from Asia all the way to the United States,” said Saiful Husni, CEO of Global Transit, a TdC wholly-owned subsidiary.

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Source: TdC.
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