THE Brunei Government in partnership with TelBru and the DST Group has contributed US$40 million ($60 million) to a cable service project linking Southeast Asia and North America.

The 20,000km-long fibre optic cable network, which is hoped to enable the Sultanate to meet expected explosive growth in international bandwidth requirements, is expected to begin commercial operations in July or August this year, according to reports from Philippine media.

The project called Asia-America Gateway (AAG) will connect Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, and the US West Coast. It costs US$550 million. A company called Brunei International Gateway has been established to lead the project, manage cable services and sell the capacity to local and foreign telecommunication operators.

Officials from the Ministry of Communications handling the project could not be reached for comment.

The construction of AAG will support cutting edge broadband applications such as IP-based data, video and other multimedia services. The system's maximum capacity was designed to carry at least 1.92 terrabits of data per second.

An Authority for Info-Communications and Technology Industry (AiTi) spokesperson said the gateway will provide resiliency and diversity to the existing Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 and terrestrial Trans-Borneo cables used by the country.

All submarine-cable installation works are now progressing including other segments such as in Hong Kong, a report by Philippine newspaper Business Mirror stated, citing Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT), a member of the consortium that built the facility.

PLDT had earlier said the project, which was expected to carry commercial traffic by the last quarter of 2008, had been experiencing delay. Severe weather conditions had delayed the Hong Kong deep-burial operations, and remedial measures are being taken to resolve cable fault.

"All submarine cable installation works should be completed this month," said the report.

Network testing is also expected to commence within the month, while all terminal stations comprising the AAG cable project have been completed.

"Traffic is expected to flow through the AAG cable network starting July/August 2009 time frame," said PLDT.

The network will also provide added protection from disruptions such as the 2006 earthquake in the southern part of Taiwan, when the 7.1 magnitude quake caused massive service interruptions for weeks to telecommunications services. Its route will skip areas prone to seismic activity.

The gateway will also provide seamless interconnection with other major cable systems connecting Europe, Australia and other parts of Asia and Africa. The project is spearheaded by a 17-member consortium consisting of the Brunei government, phone companies and telecommunications firms from the region. Hadi DP Mahmud

In Courtesy of The Brunei Times