TIME dotCom Berhad has invested in its second Trans-Pacific submarine cable system called FASTER that will connect Asia and North America in support of its global expansion initiatives.
Together with five global service providers (China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Google, KDDI and SingTel as partners in FASTER), TIME, through its wholly owned Global Transit 2 Limited (GT2L) subsidiary, will construct and maintain FASTER, an approximately 9,000 kilometre-long cable system linking Japan and North America.
FASTER will feature an initial design capacity of 60Tbps and the group’s investment will see it secure one dedicated fibre pair capable of carrying 10Tbps of capacity with the current 100Gbps technology.
FASTER is also expected to extend the TIME’s intra-Asia capacity when the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) cable system, in which it owns a stake, is completed. The APG will link the ASEAN region to Japan and beyond, to the United States.
Its investment in the FASTER cable system (FASTER) is the company’s second submarine cable project in partnership with Google and other investors, and builds on the strength and success of its previous investment in the Unity Cable System (Unity), it said.
“When we first invested in Unity in February 2008, I didn’t think we’d so quickly be in the position where the demand would so steeply outstrip supply” said TIME’s Chief Executive Officer, Afzal Abdul Rahim. “I am glad that we are able to supplement our existing Trans-Pacific capacity and add resilience to our global network on such an important route as the Trans-Pacific segment”.
TIME said its participation in the FASTER cable system comes just four months after it announced that it had joined a consortium to construct and maintain the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) submarine cable system, a high-capacity cable system linking Asia and Europe via the Middle East.
“Our participation in FASTER marks another major milestone for the TIME Group’s Asia-World-Asia strategy”, added Afzal.
The FASTER cable system is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2016.
