By VNPT

The Vietnamese Prime Minister has approved VNPT's planned investment in the Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) undersea cable system.

China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), NTT Communications (Japan), KT (Korea), PLDT (Philippines), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam) have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop the Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) as an international undersea cable system within the Asia-Pacific region.

The new 8,000km cable will connect Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The APG will have a minimum design capacity of four terabits per second.

The cable should be in service by 2011. The new cable is a sure sign that the telcos are confident of future demand for high bandwidth global communication, including the Internet and enterprise network services. Such services require both high reliability and redundant routes to secure continuous.