Asia is the world’s biggest seamless landmass. Yet the Asian countries have been interlinked by submarine cables. As if Asia is an archipelago. That’s why the undersea earthquakes have emerged as the serial killer of international connectivity. It disrupted Asia’s telecom services in 2006 and thereafter.
Japan’s NTT Communication and its partners have responded with building Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE). It will be launched on Monday, August 20. NTT Com’s Nakanishi explains how this new cable has been designed to withstand earthquake and typhoon.
The ASE goes up to over 3,000m water depth and is constructed up to 10m below seabed for additional safety.
That’s fine and good luck to ASE. But Mr. Nakanishi has painted a scary picture about the fragility of other existing cables in this region.
Past occasions like earthquakes and tsunamis have interrupted the delivery of services of the telecom industry. Other activities such as fishing trawlers and anchorage by big vessels can also pose potential damages.
Any submarine-cable repair work offshore could possibly take one to two months to complete. Our objective is to shorten any potential downtime where possible, especially facing the growing demands for connectivity, such as the internet. The new ASE will deliver high speed, high capacity connectivity service with additional redundancy to the region.
Here is the full interview.
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