Japan’s NTT Communications said it will commence operation of the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) on August 20.
ASE is a 40Gbps, ultra-low latency undersea cable connecting major cities in Asia. The 7,800 km-long cable will eventually incorporate 100 Gbps optical technology.
ASE will launch with a total carrying capacity exceeding 15 Tbps and is designed to withstand earthquakes and typhoons, particularly in areas such as the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan, where undersea earthquakes have disrupted international communications in the past few years.
NTT Com is the major investor in ASE, which has been constructed in cooperation with Malaysia’s Telekom Malaysia, Philippines’ PLDT and Singapore’s StarHub.
The cable has landing points in Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, and will add Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2013.
The route between Japan and Singapore covers the shortest distance to maximize reliability and minimize latency. It is also connected directly to the Serangoon Data Center in Singapore and later will also connect to the Hong Kong Financial Data Centre.
The direct connection enables customers there to use NTT Com’s network, data centers and cloud services on an end-to-end, one-stop basis, the company said.
With the launch of the new subsea cable, NTT Com will begin offering an enhanced global leased line service, by incorporating ASE’s low-latency routes into its existing Arcstar Global Leased Line Service.
This month NTT Com will incorporate ASE into the backbone of its tier-1 global IP network and, in the near future, will do the same for Arcstar Universal One, its scalable, cloud-based network service, the company noted.