Asia America Gateway undersea cable system to get 40-Gbps upgrade via Mitsubishi Electric

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (TOKYO:6503) says it has received a contract to upgrade the transpacific Asia America Gateway undersea cable network. The upgrade will see the per-wavelength transmission capacity of the submarine fiber-optic network increase to 40-Gbps using coherent technology.

The Asia America Gateway undersea system’s total capacity will increase 5X to 5.2 Tbps when the upgrade is completed, a milestone Mitsubishi expects to reach by the third quarter of 2012. The award follows a field trial of the 40-Gbps coherent technology.

The Asia America Gateway Cable Network currently operates at 10 Gbps over 20,000 km of fiber-optic cable. It connects seven Southeast Asian countries to the United States via 10 landing stations. A consortium of 19 telecommunications carriers own the cable, eight of whom contracted for the upgrade. The eight include AT&T, Brunei International Gateway, CAT Telecom, Philippines Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), StarHub, Telekom Malaysia, Telstra, and Vietnam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT).

"We are proud to be selected as the supplier for the AAG Cable Network capacity upgrade," said Masahiro Tsukamoto, general manager of Mitsubishi Electric's Telecommunication Systems Department. "Having received an order for similar work on the transatlantic TAT-14 Cable Network, Mitsubishi Electric will become the first supplier of 40-Gbps upgrades to both transpacific and transatlantic networks. We now look forward to building on these wins to assist other network operators with high-quality upgrades."