A consortium of seven global telecommunications companies agreed to cooperate in the construction and operation of a new submarine cable system that directly connects Southeast Asia and the United States.
When completed in the fourth quarter of 2016 at an approximate cost of $250 million, the cable system will provide an additional 20Tb/s capacity, connecting Indonesia and the Philippines to the United States with state-of-the-art 100G technology. This capacity will cater to the exponential growth of bandwidth demand between both continents.
The members of the SEA-US consortium include Globe Telecom (Globe), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), Telkom USA, GTI Corporation (a member of the Globe Group of companies), RAM Telecom International (RTI), Teleguam Holdings (GTA) and Hawaiian Telcom (HTEL). NEC has been contracted for the project.
The SEA-US submarine cable system will link five areas and territories that include Manado (Indonesia), Davao (Philippines), Piti (Guam), Oahu (Hawaii, United States) and Los Angeles (California, United States), the SEA-US project will be approximately 15,000 kilometers in length, provides route diversity from the North Pacific, avoiding earthquake prone areas in East Asia.
Syarif Syarial Ahmad, President Director of Telin, said the project will support Indonesia's strong economic growth and its government's Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development (MP3EI).
In the Philippines, Globe Telecom's Chief Operating Officer for International and Business Markets Gil Genio said the SEA-US project will enable Globe to meet tomorrow's bandwidth needs.
In addition to the SEA-US cable system, Globe Telecom is also a member of an international consortium of telecommunications and technology companies operating the Southeast Asia-Japan Cable (SJC) system, an 8,900-kilometer cable system linking seven territories that include Brunei, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines, including the option to link with Thailand.