$250-M undersea cable now operational
The seven-member Southeast Asia-United States (SEA-US) cable consortium recently announced the full commercial operations this month of the US$250million submarine fiber cable system directly linking Asia to the US for faster data transmission.
With the recent completion of the Philippines and Indonesia portion, the cable system can now provide additional capacity for the fast-growing bandwidth demand between the two continents, bypassing congested, earthquake-prone areas to ensure business continuity even during disasters.
“We are happy that the final leg of the SEA-US cable strategically terminating in Davao, is already done," says Ernest L. Cu, President and CEO of Globe Telecom, one of the consortium members.
"The facility will not only ease our dependence on the two international cable systems routed through Northern Philippines but will also provide support for the expanding business requirement for data in Southern Philippines and the country as a whole,” he pointed out.
Globe commercially launched the SEA-US cable system on August 11 — three days after the cable consortium declared SEA-US ready for commercial operations.
The SEA-US undersea cable system delivers a 20 Terabit per second capacity with state-of-the-art 100 Gigabit per second technology. It provides the fastest direct access between the US, Philippines and Indonesia, extending nearly 9,000 miles on a route that bypasses congested, earthquake-prone regions.
The SEA-US system connects to expansive and redundant terrestrial networks that link the cable stations to data centers in California, Guam, Hawaii, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The system was built by a consortium of 7 international telecommunication companies – Globe Telecom, 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).
It links five countries and territories that include Manado (Indonesia), Davao (Philippines), Piti (Guam), Oahu (Hawaii, United States) and Los Angeles (California, United States). (EVA)