Consortium inks contracts to build Southeast Asia Japan Cable System
Backbone to provide world's highest bandwidth capacity
Links to multiple countries between Japan and Singapore
Manila, Philippines, 10 December 2009 - A group of major telecom and technology companies today signed a landmark agreement to build and operate the Southeast Asia Japan Cable system or SJC, a new international submarine cable system with the highest capacity in the world. The new cable system will address broadband demand by providing much needed capacity and faster, more reliable connectivity to sustain the unprecedented growth in data, web applications and Internet traffic throughout Asia.
The SJC system, estimated to cost US$400 million and measure 8300 km, will initially link Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, and Japan. The 6-fiber-pair high capacity submarine cable system has a design capacity of 17 Terabits per second (Tbps) upgradeable to 23 Tbps, the highest capacity system ever built so far.
Initiating parties to this breakthrough project include Globe Telecom (Philippines), Google (USA), KDDI (Japan), Network i2i (a 100% subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, India), Reliance Globalcom (through FLAG Pacific Limited, Bermuda), and Telemedia Pacific Inc., Ltd. (Hong Kong/Indonesia). Other initial parties have signified their intent to participate in the project once requisite approvals have been obtained.
Ernest Cu, President and CEO of Globe said, "Globe as a premier telecommunications company is known to be a pioneer and leader in service innovation in the Philippines. True to our mission, we are proud to partner with some of world's eminent telcos in the region and the world. This breakthrough project will link the Philippines to the Southeast Asia Japan Cable System and give our customers enhanced data connectivity going out of the Philippines to Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, and onwards to the US."
Hady Hartanto, Chairman of Telemedia Pacific Inc., (TPI) said, "We are delighted to partner with some of the world's largest telco players in building this pan-Asia cable system. By providing an exclusive link to Indonesia, Telemedia will not only enhance the geographical coverage of the cable system, we will also be able to address the fast growing bandwidth demand for broadband transmission between Indonesia and the key Asian gateways of Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, and thereon to the rest of the world."
"With SJC complementing our existing Asia network, our customers will be able to address a population of over 66 million people and a GDP of $ 7500 Bn in addition to India and China markets," said Mr. Punit Garg President and CEO, Reliance Globalcom. "We will now be uniquely positioned to provide to our customers' Voice, Internet and Data Services across the entire Asian continent connecting the top 10 key business markets in Asia Pac. In addition to improved network redundancy at multiple levels, our customers will now be able to expand their networks in the growing South East Asian markets of Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines," he added.
The initiating parties signed the agreements in Manila on December 10, 2009. The SJC is targeted to be operational by the second quarter of 2012.
About Globe Globe is a leading full service telecommunications company in the Philippines, serving the needs of consumers and businesses across an entire suite of products and services including mobile, fixed, broadband, data connections, internet and managed services. Globe has major investments in various submarine cable systems. Its principals are Ayala Corporation and Singapore Telecom who are acknowledged industry leaders in the country and in the region. For more information, visit www.globe.com.ph.
About Google
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information,
About KDDI
KDDI is the only Japanese information and communications company that comprehensively provides all communications services, from fixed to mobile. KDDI is aggressively working towards realization of the coming Ubiquitous Network Society through its ability to develop leading-edge fixed and mobile communications networks, and services to support them, and through the ability to carry out technical R&D at a level unsurpassed anywhere. For more information, visit www.kddi.com or www.kddi.com/english/index.html
About Network i2i
Network i2i is a Private cable development company based in Mauritius and is a 100% subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited India. It has built the 3,000 km-long 8.4 Tbps i2i cable network that links Singapore with Chennai in India.
About Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises is among Asia's leading integrated telecom services providers with operations in India and Sri Lanka. The company has an aggregate of over 115 million customers as of end October 2009, consisting of 113.2 million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by Business Week. Bharti Airtel is structured as four strategic business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India and Sri Lanka. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian cities. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel's national high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 113,326 Rkms covering all the major cities in India. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai and Mumbai, connecting two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and SEA-MEWE-4 to Europe. For more information, visit www.airtel.in
About Reliance Globalcom
Reliance Globalcom is a division of Reliance Communications spearheading the Global Telecom operations of India's largest Integrated Telecom Service Provider. Reliance Globalcom brings together the synergies of Reliance Communications' Global Business encompassing Enterprise Services, Capacity Sales, Managed Services and a highly successful bouquet of Retail products and services comprising of Global Voice, Internet Solutions and Value Added Services. The company serves over 2,100 enterprises, 200 carriers and 2.2 million retail customers in 163 countries across 6 continents.
Reliance Globalcom owns the world's largest private undersea cable system spanning 65,000 Kilometers seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications' domestic optic fiber running over 190,000 Kilometers, providing a robust Global Service Delivery Platform connecting 40 key business markets in India, USA, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. With its recent acquisition of eWave World (now Reliance WiMAX World), a pioneer in the global WiMAX space, Reliance Globalcom has the capability to launch 4G services in over 50 countries. It has also acquired the Vanco Group (now Reliance Vanco Group), enabling the company to provide managed services to over 230 countries and territories across the globe. For further information, please visit www.relianceglobalcom.com
About Telemedia Pacific Inc.
Telemedia Pacific Inc. (TPI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telemedia Pacific Group (TPG), a holding company with interest in the submarine and terrestrial fibre optic industry. TPG plans to invest in reliable and high-performance fibre optic networks, and subsequently develop into an integrated fibre optic infrastructure service provider in Southeast Asia.
