Asia-Pacific Gateway Cable System Underway
December 23, 2011
A consortium of nine Asia-Pacific telecom companies concluded and signed an agreement for the construction and maintenance of the APG (Asia Pacific Gateway) submarine cable system, the Commercial Times of Taiwan reported on 21 December, 2011. The APG is estimated at approximately NT$15 billion (US$496.7 million; US$1 = NT$30.2) with participants covering Chunghwa Telecom, China Unicom, China Telecom, NTT DoCoMo, KT, PLDT, VNPT, TOT, and Telecom Malaysia. The cable system is projected to connect Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. The system is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2014 with a design capacity of up to 54.8 Tbps. Chunghwa Telecom said that the APG is expected to provide a more reliable Internet connection from the earthquake-prone Asia-Pacific area to Europe and North America.