A consortium of telecommunications companies in Southeast Asia signed an agreement to invest about $300 million for a submarine cable system to boost capacity in the region, Globe Telecom said.
The 6,000-kilometer Asia Link Cable (ALC) will connect Hong Kong and Singapore as its trunk with branches to the Philippines, Brunei and Hainan, China, the Ayala-led telco said in a statement.
China Telecom Global Limited (CTG) of China, Globe Telecom and DITO Telecommunity of the Philippines, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) of Singapore and Unified National Networks Sdn Bhd (UNN) of Brunei Darussalam are part of the group that inked the deal, Globe said.
“ALC is a great accomplishment of Asian carriers which overcame difficulties of Covid impacts, and it is also the only subsea project with zero face-to-face meetings from the MoU to the C&MA (construction and maintenance agreement) signing in the industry," ALC Co-Chair Chang Weiguo.
"ALC consortium adopts an open and inclusive principle and will attract more investors in the near future to make it more cost-effective, which will reinforce the resilience of interconnectivity in Asia and better serve digital economy in the region," Chang added.
ALC, with minimum fiber pairs in the system and 18 Tbps/fiber pair minimum trunk design capacity, is expected to provide additional capacity within Asia, it added.
Globe said HMN Technologies Co Ltd (HMB Tech) was awarded as the system supplier. Construction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2025, it added.
The consortium said the project would enhance existing facilities in the region enabling it to cater to future requirements.