SingTel Joins Cable ConsortiumSingTel Joins Cable Consortium

SINGAPORE -- Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) today announced it has signed an agreement to join a consortium of telecommunications carriers to build and operate the new Southeast Asia Japan Cable system (SJC), a new international submarine cable system with the highest capacity in the world.

The new cable system, which is expected to be operational by the second quarter of 2012, is estimated to cost US$400 million and spans 8300 km, initially linking Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. The 6-fibre pair high capacity submarine cable system has a design capacity of 17 Terabits per second (Tbps) and can be upgraded to 23 Tbps, making it the highest capacity system ever to be built.

Mr Mark Chong, SingTel’s Executive Vice President for Networks, said: “The Southeast Asia Japan cable network will cater to the strong demand for data, e-commerce, web applications and internet traffic in high growth countries in Asia. It sets a new benchmark for international connectivity, with its high capacity and resilient transmission infrastructure. It will also serve Singapore well when the government rolls out the National Broadband Network in 2012.”

“As the SJC connects Singapore to other cable systems in Asia, it will provide access to other parts of the region and serve as an important cable diversity route. SJC is designed to avoid outage prone areas. It will also be linked to the new Unity cable network, thus enhancing SingTel’s ability to offer superior connectivity between Asia and the US,” he added.

SingTel is a founding member of the Unity cable, which is expected to be ready in the middle of 2010.

The other members of the SJC consortium are Globe Telecom, Google, KDDI, Network i2i, Reliance Globalcom, Telemedia Pacific Inc., Ltd and PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International. The consortium may be expanded to include other carriers in the future.

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) (OTC: SGTJY)