Fergie's Tech Blog

Telcos Plan 'Quake-Free' Asia-U.S. Cable Route

Clarence Fernandez and Syed Azman write for Reuters:

Asian phone companies unveiled plans to build a $500 million undersea cable between Southeast Asia and the United States to speed up connections in the region and avoid earthquake zones.

Existing telecoms cables connecting Asia and North America are nearing full capacity, while some of the oldest will need to be retired soon, Malaysia's communications minister said on Friday in announcing the project, to be led by Telekom Malaysia

The 20,000-kilometre (12,400-mile), fiber-optic cable system would also take a different route from many existing cables to avoid quake-prone areas and a repeat of the disruption to Asian Web access caused by a tremor off Taiwan four months ago.

posted by Fergie @ 4/26/2007 11:05:00 PM