New cable links China, ASEAN

New cable links China, ASEAN

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel)
said Wednesday the first overland telecommunications cable
linking China and mainland Southeast Asia will start carrying
traffic from Thursday.

The cable built by SingTel and five other regional carriers
spans 7,000 kilometers across China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand,
Malaysia and Singapore, the Singapore company said in a
statement.

It will provide an alternative for international leased
circuit, Internet and voice services carried on existing
submarine cables.

The cable, with a capacity equivalent to 30,000 simultaneous
calls, is compatible with other major cable systems such as the
China-U.S. cable network.

It has eight landing points in Shanghai and Guangzhou in
China, Hanoi, Vientiane, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

SingTel's partners in the venture are China Telecom, Vietnam
Posts and Telecommunications Corp., Enterprise of
Telecommuncations Lao, the Communications Authority of Thailand
and Telekom Malaysia.