SEA-US submarine cable system deployment begins

Construction of the South-East Asia - United States (SEA-US) submarine cable system has begun, according to the consortium of companies backing the project (see "Global consortium to build SEA-US undersea cable system"). NEC Corp. and NEC Corp. of America are responsible for construction of the undersea cable system, which will be the first to directly connect Indonesia and the United States.

Deployment of the submarine network will cost approximately $250 million. The project should be completed in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The SEA-US system will link the five areas and territories of Manado in Indonesia; Davao in Southern Philippines; Piti in the territory of Guam; Honolulu, HI; and Los Angeles. The undersea fiber-optic network will run approximately 15,000 km along a route designed to avoid earthquake-prone areas in East Asia. Leveraging additional connectivity via existing and planned submarine cable systems in the region, other countries – including Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, and Australia – also should benefit from the SEA-US, its backers believe.

The cable system will have an initial capacity of 20 Tbps, based on 100-Gbps wavelengths. This capacity will help to meet the exponentially growing demand for bandwidth between Southeast Asia and North America in unparalleled performance, especially for those two ASEAN countries.

SEA-US consortium members include PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), Globe Telecom, RAM Telecom International (RTI), Hawaiian Telcom, Teleguam Holdings (GTA), GTI Corp. (a member of the Globe Telecom group of companies), and Telkom USA.

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