Telstra’s global network capabilities have been strengthened through continued investment in 2009. November saw the opening of the Asia America Gateway – the first direct single cable connection between South East Asia and the US. In addition, Telstra also announced partnerships with COLT in Europe and IS in South Africa, meaning Telstra can deliver greater connectivity to these areas. Telstra’s presence in Asia has also been expanded with the addition of new infrastructure in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia, further consolidating Telstra’s leadership as a regional specialist carrier in Asia with a global reach.
Asia America Gateway
The new 20,000 kilometre-long Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable network, which opened on 10th November, is the first direct single cable connection between the high growth South East Asia markets and the United States.
The AAG cable was commissioned and built by a consortium of predominantly Australian, Asian and American telecommunications organisations, formed in April 2007. The largest capacity owner in the consortium, Telstra will be able to offer a low latency route from South East Asia to North America, providing customers with greater access to Asian markets.
This new cable further strengthens Telstra’s ability to service the needs of Asian customers as well as global multinational corporations reaching into and across the Asia Pacific region.
The AAG links South East Asia to the US with the submarine cable routing from Malaysia via Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. The cable system also connects into Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam. Crucially, it has been planned and designed specifically to avoid geographically hazardous areas around the volatile Pacific Rim earthquake zone. This will enable better and more reliable connectivity, providing the opportunity for customers to reinforce business continuity strategies.
With an initial equipped capacity of 500 Gigabits per second, the AAG cable is interconnected with Telstra’s other Australia–US cable networks. In addition to holding capacity on AAG, Telstra also owns its own fibre pair in the AAG cable between Hawaii and the West Coast of the US.
The AAG capacity will be integrated into the Telstra Global Next IP network reducing latency, while adding reliability and diversity to our market-leading IP VPN, Global Internet and Global Ethernet services including EPL, EVPL and VPLS.
Telstra is already using the AAG to improve services across the globe. One set of upgrades includes market-leading latency between Sydney and Hong Kong, reduced by 14% to 117ms from 135ms on AAG and AJC via Guam. Please contact your account manager for further information.