A new undersea cable will be laid off the coast of northern China in order to improve Internet speeds. Chinese authorities have given their approval for this cable, which will be run by Asia Netcom, the international cable division of fixed-line telephone operator China Netcom. The cable will link the coastal city of Qingdao with Asia Netcom's submarine regional cable network linking South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

 

The new cable is expected to be ready in the beginning of 2006. It will have a capacity of 80 gigabits per second, allowing users from northern China to access websites in the East Asian region and in North America at a higher speed than is currently possible. Current speed is quite low because the Chinese cable network is heavily burdened by the growing number of internet users in northern China and the popularity of data-heavy services, including online games and video downloads.