Pacific network operator Pacnet has announced its intent to build a submarine cable that will connect India to its EAC/C2C cable systems. The new system, to be called West Asia Crossing, will run between Chennai and both Singapore and Malaysia, with possible additional landing points in Mumbai as well as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The new cable will be initially designed to carry as much as 6-8Tbps. It will cost some $150M and would be ready in 2 years, assuming liftoff is successful.
No one can deny that traffic to and from the Indian subcontinent has been growing rapidly, so new cable construction is inevitable. However, this project isn’t fully off the ground yet. What Pacnet is doing is trying to find partners, using the Unity joint-build approach as a model. Pacnet CEO Bill Barney suggests that they might just do it all themselves, but that’s probably just a way to convince people to sign on. Regardless, Pacnet and its backers have continued to put money behind network expansion. I wonder where they will turn their attention next.
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Categories: Undersea cables
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And has anyone heard of this cable going ahead ?? Seems another PR blurb that goes no where from these guys.