Telstra reveals Asia-Pacific fiber-optic network expansion initiatives

Australian international communications service provider Telstra has outlined a series of initiatives designed to improve service delivery in Asia-Pacific. The moves include adding capacity to its submarine network infrastructure as well as opening new terrestrial fiber-optic network routes.

On the submarine cable side, Telstra can now leverage capacity on the new Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) undersea cable system. The BBG's three fiber pairs run 8,000 km to connect Singapore, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (see "Reliance Jio announces launch of Bay of Bengal Gateway submarine network"). Telstra will use the submarine network to offer direct connectivity between Asia and the Middle East and then onward to Europe via the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable.

"BBG is designed to provide highly upgradable facilities by adopting the state-of-the-art 100Gbps technology, meaning our customers can access one of the fastest routes available between Singapore and the Middle East," said Telstra's Executive Director International Operations and Services, Darrin Webb.

Telstra also says it will lease capacity on the FASTER submarine cable system to offer trans-Pacific connectivity (see "Google joins Asian carriers to build FASTER submarine network"). The fiber system connects Japan and neighboring cable systems with major hubs on U.S. West Coast, including the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle areas. Finally the service provider says it will extend the operating life of its EAC and C2C undersea cable networks by seven years, which means until at least 2035.

Terrestrially, Telstra says it will be able to offer what will become the shortest and lowest latency route between Taipei and Hong Kong, thanks to a new overland fiber route in Taiwan. The route will bypass the Luzon Strait, site of several cable outages. The company also will construct a new, highly resilient fiber ring network in South Korea to interconnect Telstra's points of presence (PoPs) and cable landing stations in the country.

"We already own and operate the largest intra-Asia subsea network, representing around 30% of total active capacity. These enhancements further extend our capacity and will support the provision of our leading technologies, such as Telstra's PEN software-defined networking and cloud, security and unified communications services," Webb concluded.

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