Brunei Intl Gateway to be set up soon

THE Brunei Government and private telecommunication firms will soon formally establish a joint-venture company Brunei International Gateway (BIG) that will participate in the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable project.

The government's partners in this venture are TelBru and DST Group. They signed a joint-venture agreement (JVA) yesterday.

Brunei has pledged US$40 million to the project, with the government contributing US$30 million through its investment vehicle Brooketon Sdn Bhd while DST and TelBru will be investing US$5 million each.

"Under this JVA, BIG shall be established to carry on the business of an investment holding and trading company which would enable it to participate in the AAG Submarine Cable Project operation," said deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Communications Hj Mahmud Hj Mohd Daud during the signing.

BIG will also manage the cable services and sell the capacity to local and foreign telecommunication operators.

The AAG is the first cable system of its kind to directly link the region to the United States, consisting of a 20,000-km fibre optic cable network that will connect 10 different locations in eight countries across the Asia Pacific region.

Brunei officials were unwilling to disclose further details following yesterday's signing ceremony at DST's headquarters in Jerudong, saying the topic was "sensitive" and required prior clearance from the AAG management committee to comment.

According to the project's website, completion of the AAG is expected to "revolutionise high bandwidth delivery between Asia and the US". Designed for broadband traffic, it will provide diversity in traditional routes to the US and ensure alternate routes, expanded capacity and high levels of service during potential disasters.

The AAG bypasses the most seismically volatile areas in volcanic and earthquake-prone "Pacific ring of fire". Two of the main East Asia telecommunications arteries in the region, the SeaMeWe 3 (South East Asia Middle East Western Europe 3) and APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network 2) undersea cables, were damaged in December 2006 following a series of powerful earthquakes off the coast of Taiwan that disrupted Asia's voice and data communications within the region and the rest of the world.

Officials of the consortium said the cable system is designed to provide a bandwidth capacity of up to 1.92 Terabits per second of data. The gateway will use dense wavelength division multiplexing technology, which allows future transmission facilities projects to be upgraded to support faster Internet and e-commerce traffic. Hadi DP Mahmud

The Brunei Times