Telstra International and TPN have collaborated to develop the Echo fiber optic cable, the first submarine cable directly connecting the United States and Singapore, opening up a new route across the Pacific.
The Echo underwater system connects California, Jakarta, Singapore, and Guam. This system provides a low latency, high-speed, and resilient network infrastructure that connects South Asia and the United States.
Telstra stated that the geographical area of the new fiber optic cable construction is one of the more challenging areas for global regulation and submarine cable cutting.
“Our undersea network size enables Telstra to successfully address the complexity of these environments to ensure the stability of global digital connectivity,” said Rosary Stasko, CEO of Telstra International.
According to the partnership, Australia Telecom will become the operational partner of TPN’s Echo fiber optic cable system. This Australian based telecommunications operator will also provide fiber optic landing station services and network operation center services for Echo in Singapore.
Aaron Knapik, chief financial officer of TPN, said: “Echo submarine optical cable system will become a key component of the digital infrastructure in the Indian Pacific region, which will eventually strengthen the network and improve the capacity, while reducing the Internet cost in the region.”
According to Telegeography data, bandwidth demand in the Trans Pacific region is growing at the fastest pace in the world, and forecasts show that by 2029, its bandwidth demand will increase by 39% year-on-year.
Stasko said, “Trans Pacific is a key connecting point to the United States, and the geographical location of these regions means they will rely on new submarine fiber optic cable lines like Echo to achieve international connectivity.”
Stasko added that Australia Telecom has recently increased its capacity by 3 megabits per second through SEA-US fiber optic cables connecting the US mainland to Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines, “which complements our existing cross Pacific cables such as AAG, Unity, Faster, NCP, and Jupiter.”.
The collaboration between Australia Telecom and Echo is its latest initiative to expand production capacity in the Pacific region. Last week, Australia Telecom teamed up with Google to build another undersea fiber optic cable project with United Telecom Holdings (ATH) and APTelecom, constructing two Pacific internal fiber optic cables connecting Guam, Fiji, and French Polynesia.