Asia America Gateway AAG (3)

Finally, AAG has a website! You may check http://asia-america-gateway.com !

But don't expect too much for now :-D It's almost similar to the TPE website, which is mainly intended for the members of the consortium. There is also no NEW information either. The website is maintained by PLDT and hosted at INFOCOM Technologies (Philippines).

"The birth of the AAG will revolutionize high bandwidth delivery between Asia and the USA. Designed for broadband traffic, it will provide much-needed diversity in traditional routes to the US and ensure alternate routes, expanded capacity and high levels of service during potential disasters. The AAG Cable System is expected to carry commercial traffic by first quarter of 2009."

Source/Courtesy AAG/asia-america-gateway.com

Asia America Gateway AAG (2)

One day in 2007 George McLaughlin has mentioned AAG as a possible infrastructure for supporting future Asian networks (APAN - in the context of RENs). It shall at the begin this year a decision whether or not APAN acquires a stake in the consortium. Since the Hengchun's earthquake many people see AAG as a potential infrastructure for increasing network reliability between (South/South-East) Asia and the USA, since it uses different routes than the usual Asia-US submarine cables. AAG also plays an important and strategic role that it can be extended to other countries/continents, thus increasing network reliability at a global scale (see the pic below).

How is the status of AAG currently ? I've found several new things, but not much :-)

• CAPEX : USD 550 mn (update to this post)
• "The Philippine leg of Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable system landed in the northern province of La Union" (this happened several times ago; PLDT contributes USD 50 mn for this project)
• RFS Q4/2008, commercial traffic early 2009
  

AAG - Map and Possible Extensions

AAG West Portion (REACH)

Cable Crossings at Hongkong Landing Point (South Lantau?)

AAG : Something New ?

Several days ago I was 'googling' for the AAG - Asia America Gateway - submarine cable system. I just want to update myself with (and was expecting to find) some new information about it. Almost one year ago, I heard for the first time about this project just a while after many asian countries were healed / relaxed from the effect of the Taiwan's earthquake on Dec 2006. At that time, I wrote a short article about it in a local newspaper.

Unfortunately I do not find much new information. It seems that currently AAG doesn't have any official websites either.

Sofar, Google provides the following information for the AAG projects:

• The AAG network is owned by a consortium formed by 10 parties including the Government of Brunei, AT&T, Bharti, CAT, PLDT, PT Telkom, Telekom Malaysia, Telstra, StarHub and VNPT (alcatel-lucent.com 09/2007, a different version of the consortium's membership is issued by a press release document from Telekom Malaysia dated 04/2007, which names 17 telcos). It will link Malaysia to the U.S. via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the West coast of the US (see the picture).
• The AAG is intended to compliment existing cable systems like the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN 2) & Japan-US Cable Network currently connecting to North America via North Asia. This would increase connection diversity and survivability.
• Maximum design capacity of 1.92 Tbps; initial capacity of 480 Gbps
• one cable (with possibly 8/24 or 4/48)
• Length of the cable : around 20,000 km (half of the length of the equator)
• Contractors : Alcatel-Lucent (ASN), NEC Corporation
• US Landing : the AT&T 03 cable station (San Luis Obispo)
• Investment : ca. USD 500 mio.
• Regeneration distance : 76 km
• Date of service : late 2008
• Minimum lifetime : 25 years

If you look at the picture above, from Indonesia's point of view, it seems that both Telkom and Indosat will use their existing submarine cables to connect to either MY or SG. Telkom might use either its DMCS (Dumai Melaka Cable System) or its TIS cable.