Telstra has entered into agreements to invest in two new international subsea cable systems that will connect Hong Kong and the west coast of the United States.
The first investment will see Telstra partner to build the new Hong Kong Americas (HKA) cable that will connect Hong Kong to the US. The company will invest in a half fibre pair.
Telstra has also invested in capacity on the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) that will also connect Hong Kong and the US. The investment will be the equivalent of 6 Terabits per second (TBps).
David Burns , Telstra’s managing director of Global Services and International, said, “As economic growth continues in China and South East Asia, so too does the demand for data. Together with the current AAG cable on which Telstra carries the most traffic today, these two investments will provide us with increased capacity across the important Hong Kong to US route, one of the fastest growing routes in the world for capacity demand.”
“Our investment in capacity on PLCN and HKA will also provide our customers with greater resiliency due to bypassing areas prone to natural disasters and offering two direct, alternative paths to the AAG cable which connects South East Asia to the US west coast via Hong Kong, Guam and Hawaii.”
The HKA cable is expected to be completed in 2020 and PLCN in 2019.