The Hong Kong link of the Asia Submarine-Cable Express (ASE) has been completed, marking the conclusion of initial construction for the 15Tbps cable.
With the connection to Hong Kong, the cable – jointly commissioned by NTT Com, PLDT, Telekom Malaysia and StarHub – now spans around 7,800km.
NEC and Fujitsu, which were jointly contracted to build the cable in early 2011, announced the completion of the build yesterday.
The 40G cable system runs between Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Services to the other countries besides Hong Kong launched in August.
NEC provided the cables, submersible repeaters and branching units for the ASE contract, as well as monitoring and power feeding equipment. Fujitsu provided terminal equipment and the networking management system.
The ASE will eventually be upgraded to 100G once demand increases. It has been incorporated into NTT Com's Tier 1 IP network.
News of the completed cable came hours after Telstra, Telecom NZ and Vodafone NZ announced a plan to deploy a 30Tbps subsea cable between Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney Australia.
The cable, tentatively named the Tasman Global Access, is expected to cost less than $60 million and be deployed by late 2014.