Telstra announced a number of upgrades and extensions to its Asia Pac networks, including:
- Bay of Bengal Gateway cable system — a new submarine cable consisting of three fibre pairs stretching 8,000 km and connecting Singapore, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The BBG cable will offer Telstra customers direct connectivity between Asia and the Middle East and then onward to Europe when combined with the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable.
- FASTER cable system — Telstra has secured capacity on the new trans-pacific FASTER cable system connecting Japan and neighbouring cable systems with major hubs on the west coast of the United States covering the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle areas. The system, which is approximately 10,000 km in length, features six fibre pairs and utilises 100Gbps wave technology.
- EAC-C2C system — Telstra is investing in enhancing the EAC-C2C system to increase capacity and extend the life of this important cable until at least 2035. This investment will provide more certainty and improved reliability for customers on this cable, which at currently more than 36,000 km connecting Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore is the largest privately owned and operated cable in Asia.
- New Taiwan overland fibre — Telstra’s new Taiwan overland fibre route offers a unique path that can be bundled with Telstra’s existing submarine cable networks in and out of Taiwan. This route offers an alternative to cables running through the Luzon Strait, which is one of the most widely used areas connecting North Asia and the West Coast of the United States that often experiences natural disasters causing cable cuts and service disruptions.
- New ring topology network in Korea — a new, more resilient fibre ring network interconnects the PoPs and cable stations in South Korea and creates a market-leading eight diverse ways to connect into and out of South Korea, all of which are 100G-enabled.
“We already own and operate the largest intra-Asia subsea network, representing around 30 per cent of total active capacity. These enhancements further extend our capacity and will support the provision of our leading technologies, such as Telstra’s PEN software-defined networking and cloud, security and unified communications services,” stated Telstra’s Executive Director International Operations and Services, Darrin Webb.
