Seventeen telecommunications companies from Southern Asia and from the United States partnered to create the $500M undersea fiber optic cable for better internet. During the recent earthquakes and tsunamis, connections between the U.S. and the SouthEastern Asia have been disrupted, which is why the idea of an underwater cable that will be relatively safe from nature’s forces, is great. The cable will be as long as 12,428 miles and will connect the U.S. West Coast with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii.

The plan is to offer higher bandwidth connections from December 2008, said CEO of Telekom Malaysia, leader of the companies consortium. Communications will also be facilitated to those users in Europe, Africa and Australia routing either directly with U.S or with Southeast Asian countries. Included in the project are AT&T Inc, Bharti AirTel from India, BT Global Network Services, CAT Telekom from Thailand, Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc, Indosat from Indonesia and Pacific Communications Pte Ltd from Cambodia. - ALEX ION

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