VSNL, VSNL International plan $200 million in Asian cable

VSNL Singapore Pte Ltd (VSNL International), the international arm of VSNL plans to build a new multi-terabit submarine cable system linking Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. This new intra-Asia cable will enable VSNL International to better serve its global customers doing business in and with the burgeoning Asia-Pacific markets.

This investment follows the recent announcement by VSNL to build a new system from India to Europe that will provide connectivity to the Gulf region and the African continent. The intra-Asia cable, when combined with the Tata Indicom Cable System (TIC) and the TGN-Pacific cable system (both of which are built with 8 fibre pairs capable of supporting 7+ Tbil/s of traffic), will complete VSNL International's multi-Terabit capability from India to Asia and onward to the US.

"With Asian bandwidth demand forecasted to grow at an average of 27 per cent CAGR, VSNL International is taking steps to expand its capacity to serve customers in the booming intra-Asia market," says Vinod Kumar, president VSNL International. "This new high-capacity cable system, soon to be one of the region's largest, combined with our existing C2C capacity and TGN-P capacity, will enable us to deliver high-performance bandwidth at the most cost-effective pricing and fulfil our strategy to become the market leader in bandwidth supply."

VSNL International will commence construction of the new intra-Asia cable by December 2006. The scheduled build time for the project is 12-14 months. The company is already in the process of finalising design details, selecting suppliers and identifying additional partners for the project. Future potential landing stations for the cables include locations in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Guam.

Trans-Pacific submarine cable to be upgraded to one TB capacity
VSNL International will upgrade its high capacity Trans-Pacific submarine cable network to a 1 terabit capacity to serve increased customer demand between Asia and the US. The Trans-Pacific Network (TGN-P) connects several key US West Coast internet and carrier exchanges directly to Japan and onward to other important Asian destinations through multiple regional sub-sea cable interconnections.

Acquired by VSNL in 2005, as part of the Tyco Global Network (TGN), the TGN-P is designed as a ring with two 12,000km submarine cables. Each cable carries eight fiber pairs with each fiber capable of carrying up to ninety-six 10 Gbit wavelengths, delivering a total network capacity of 7+ Tbit/s. Currently, 640 Gbit/s of capacity is activated on the TGN-P system and is used by VSNL International customers to carry live voice and data traffic.

Vinod Kumar, added, "In response to significant growth in bandwidth demand over the past 12 months, coupled with strong forecasts from independent analysts, VSNL International has decided to invest in this upgrade to better serve our customers and enable them to choose us as a single source provider for all their bandwidth requirements. Our customers will benefit from easily scalable bandwidth and unparalleled connectivity on the largest Trans-Pacific system available today."

The TGN—P will be upgraded to a lit capacity of almost 1000 GBit/s and VSNL International expects the first phase of this upgrade to be implemented by the end of 2006.