Australia-Singapore Cable International Limited (ASC International) and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) are jointly building a new 4,800 km multi-terabit submarine cable system with a built-in option to support 100 Gbps.
Linking Perth, Australia, to Singapore, the two companies said the system will provide one of the first open access connections from Western Australia to Southeast Asia.
Set to go operational in 2013, the new network will enhance the reach of ASC International`s existing offering, providing what it says will be about eight times the capacity of other regional routes.
Overall, the system is designed to support about 6 Tbps or over 16 Tbps when they leverage the 100 Gbps option. ASC will provide wholesale backbone services to terrestrial Australian-based service providers from Perth and submarine and terrestrial 100 Gbps speeds from Singapore to Sydney.
Under the terms of the agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide necessary integration and cable, repeaters, branching units, power feeding equipment and the 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal that can support 40 Gbps initially with a later upgrade path 100 Gbps.
For Alcatel-Lucent, the submarine contract is another win to bolster the submarine piece of its Optics Division it saw in Q1 2011. After seeing negative growth in 2010, Alcatel-Lucent reported year-over-year growth in the submarine from being selected as one of the vendors to participate in the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 cable system.
