Brunei gets more stable Internet links

BRUNEIANS can now expect more stable and faster Internet connections with the arrival of the Asia-American Gateway (AAG), a new high-bandwidth optical fibre submarine cable system connecting seven Southeast Asian nations to the United States.

With the capacity to provide up to 1.92 terabits per second of data bandwith for the population of more than 400,000 people, the capacity is more than enough to accommodate the country's current Internet usage, said the general manager of the AAG bandwith provider in Brunei.

In an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday, Pg Hj Mohd Salleh Pg Hj Aji of Brunei International Gateway (BIG) Sdn Bhd said that the AAG will significantly reduce international Internet traffic from Brunei.

He added that this was a necessary step given the increase in mobile content and data transmitted in the Sultanate.

"If you want to download a movie and if there are a lot of people downloading (at the same time), and if you have a small pipe, then it will get congested," he said.

Pg Hj Mohd Salleh explained that this was the situation with the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE 3) cable system, which had previously been the primary bandwith infrastructure linking to Brunei since it was commissioned in 2000.

SEA-ME-WE 3's 39,000-km cable has over 35 landing points in 34 countries, connected to four continents; Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, according to the website for the cable system.

Due to the extended route of SEA-ME-WE 3 and the number of users worldwide, the bandwidth on offer in Brunei is 655 megabits per second, a marked contrast to the 1.92 terabits per second that the AAG offers.

"Now with this big pipe (AAG), the flow will be more fluid, just like water," the BIG general manager said.

He added that the AAG will also serve as a "back-up" to ensure the continuity of telecommunications from the Sultanate to the rest of the world, should the other cable system fail as experienced in 2001, when a ship's anchor cut the SEA-ME-WE 3 and Internet traffic in Asia almost came to a standstill.

Aside from stability, the AAG's large capacity can increase broadband speeds in the country, but this will be up to the Internet service providers (ISPs) and users' subscription plans, Pg Hj Mohd Salleh explained.

"On our side, the infrastructure is there. The rest is up to the ISPs," he said.

Brunei has already witnessed the improvements brought by the AAG such as Telbru's recent upgrade of its peak broadband bandwidth to five megabits per second. Previously, Telbru offered its subscribers a broadband range of 512 kilobits per second up to 3.5 megabits per second.

An officer from the Authority of Info-Communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AiTi) who was involved in the US$40 million (B$55 million) BIG project said that the AAG's direct link to the US was also a factor in improving Internet speeds here.

"Most Internet searches are directed to the US because most of the major 'dot coms' (websites) are based there. Therefore, there will be less hops from here to the US. With the old cable system, we had the other way around (through Asia, Middle East, Europe and then to the US)," he said.

The AiTi employee added that the new cable system has redirected a portion of the Internet traffic in Brunei, lessening Internet congestion.

The Brunei Times