The cable connects the continental US, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii, with Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam.

It will support the burgeoning demand for voice, IP/data and video traffic between South East Asia and the US.

The new route would avoid area most prone to seismic activity, said Vietnam Telecom International, the Vietnamese operator assigned by Vietnam National Post and Telecommunications (VNPT) to join the Asia-American Gateway consortium.

The consortium including AiTi (Brunei Darussalam), AT&T (the US) CAT Telecom (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), REACH (Hong Kong), StarHub (Singapore), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam) signed deals in 2006 to develop the f US$550 million gateway. VNPT is contributing US$40,000 to the project.

The cable system spans 20,000 kilometers and uses the latest Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing technologies with a minimum design capacity of 2 terabit per second.

Reported by Minh Quang