SEA-Japan cable system now operational

MANILA, Philippines - The $400 million Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) system is now operational, linking about eight countries including the Philippines to meet the growing bandwidth requirement in the region and at the same time allow for cost effective and resilient connectivity to other submarine cable systems.

SJC consortium spokesman Ooi Seng Keat said the cable system is now operational and links Brunei, mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the Philippines with an option to link with Thailand.

Keat, who is also vice president for Carrier Services International Business Unit of Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), said the SJC system signals a milestone for the seven Asia Pacific countries in the consortium as it would set a new benchmark in global data and information connectivity.

 â€œThe SJC is interconnected seamlessly with the latest transpacific cable, and which together will deliver the lowest latency connectivity between Asia and the US, specifically from Singapore to Los Angeles,” the official said. 

The spokesperson added that the system enhances the operators’ network resilience by offering cable diversity and reliability in the event of a cable breakage in other undersea networks as the SJC cable route avoids the earthquake zone in North Asia.

“Equipped with the highest available transmission speed for an undersea cable network, the SJC will be able to carry more bandwidth-intensive applications which can transform the way enterprises and consumers in the region work, live, learn and play,” he said.

He added that the SJC’s huge bandwidth would be able to meet the capacity needs of future applications and innovative solutions and spur the development of information and communications technology in the region.

For his part, NEC senior vice president Shunichiro Tejima said the completion of the project is a significant milestone for the international telecommunications community to better serve the ever growing demand for more bandwidth in Asia.

“We are pleased to be a part of this important project, and will continue to dedicate our strength to the development of telecommunication infrastructure in these and other countries across the globe,” Tejima said.

TE SubCom president David Coughlan said the cable system that was started in 2011 would link several countries in the region.

“As anticipated at the project inception, we believe this system will have a significant effect on how this region interacts and communicates with the rest of the world by connecting key landing sites while also providing the ability to connect other systems.”

The SJC is an 8,900-kilometer cable system which could further extend to 9,700 kilometers. It consists of six fiber pairs with the initial design capacity of 28 Terabits per second to meet bandwidth-intensive applications such as internet TV, online games and enterprise data exchange. 

To illustrate, the cable’s design capacity could support simultaneous streaming of up to three million high-definition videos.

The SJC is a global consortium of companies composed of Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. and its partner SingTel, Brunei International Gateway Sendirian Berhad (BIG), China Mobile International Ltd. (CMI), China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Telecom Global Limited, Donghwa Telecom Co. Ltd., Google, KDDI Corporation, , PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, and TOT Public Co. Ltd. (TOT).