Bharti joins five telco majors to build US-Japan undersea cable

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The new 6,200-mile trans-Pacific broadband cable system, Unity, is expected to increase the capacity for managing the massive growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the US, the companies said in a statement Monday. A formal signing ceremony was held Feb. 23, they said.

"This investment is in line with our strategy to extend our international footprint across the globe. The Unity cable system will address the demand for increased bandwidth between Asia and US as more and more services migrate to an online environment. This partnership will also provide alternative routes to meet the demands of our customers for increased levels of network resilience and redundancy," said president of Airtel Enterprise, David Nishball.

The other partners in the project are Google Inc. (US), Global Transit Ltd (Malaysia), KDDI Corporation (Japan), Pacnet (Singapore) and SingTel (Singapore).

The construction of the project will begin immediately, with initial capacity targeted to be available in the first quarter of 2010. NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications have been assigned to construct and install the system.

The Unity cable system will provide connectivity between Chikura, located off the coast near Tokyo, to Los Angeles and other West Coast network points of presence. At Chikura, Unity will be seamlessly connected to other cable systems, further enhancing connectivity into Asia. The cable system will initially increase trans-Pacific lit cable capacity by about 20 percent, with the potential to add up to 7.68 terabits per second (Tb/s) (1 terabit = 1012 bits) of bandwidth across the Pacific.

"The Unity cable system allows the members of the consortium to provide the increased capacity needed as more applications and services migrate online, giving users faster and more reliable connectivity," said Unity spokeswoman, Jayne Stowell.

Unity is now the fourth major Pacific link between Asia and the US that is currently being built. The other three under construction are the Trans-Pacific Express Cable System connecting the US, China, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea which will enter service in August 2008; the Asia-America gateway (AAG) which will start operations from the first quarter of 2009, and Reliance Communications cable network, FLAG.

This new consortium is yet another step towards improving redundancy with resilient networks, especially in the wake of the recent crisis when undersea links were damaged off the coast of Egypt, disrupting internet connections in many countries including India. With multiple undersea cables in place, Bharti Airtel can safeguard its interests by redirecting traffic via other undersea links.

This is the third major initiative in the recent past by Bharti Airtel, which is aimed at becoming a major player in the international bandwidth business. Last month, Bharti Airtel along with eight leaders of the global telecommunications industry including VSNL, had signed a formal construction and maintenance agreement to build a fiber-optic submarine cable that stretches from India to France via the Middle East.

Last year, Bharti joined the Telecom Malaysia (TM)-led 17-member consortium of telecommunication companies to set up Asia-America gateway (AAG) the first submarine-cable system linking South-East Asia directly to the US.

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