Hong Kong Telecom’s PCCW Global has partnered with 16 other global service providers including Africa’s Etisalat, Telecom Egypt, Ooredoo to build a new and unique high capacity cable system dubbed Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1). AAE-1.
Set to be live in 2016, the 25,000 km-long cable, dubbed Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1), will interconnect Africa to Hong Kong, Asia, the Middle East and Europe and will be the first cable system to link Africa to East Asian nations and Europe in a move expected to facilitate the expected growth of Asia-Africa trade by providing high capacity, reliable, low latency connectivity. Cities to be covered include Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France.
Other service providers in the deal include China Unicom, Omantel and many others.
According to Alex Arena, HKT’s Group Managing Director,, “Our investment in AAE-1 will further enhance our position in Hong Kong as a regional telecommunications hub, and will also improve the ability of PCCW Global’s international cable network to withstand natural disasters such as the massive earthquakes which have occurred in the region over the past few years. It will also help to address the ever-increasing demands of our mobile, data and video customers in Hong Kong who make use of our world-leading quadruple-play services.”
Available in over 3,000 cities and 130 countries, the PCCW Global network provides Ethernet solutions, IP solutions, fiber and satellite transmission solutions, managed services and solutions, international voice and VoIPX services and several others. The firm has offices around the world including in Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, US, Paris, London, Belgium and Johannesburg in South Africa plus in the UAE.
The AAE-1 project builds on the firm’s extensive strategic cooperation with other consortium members around the world, said Marc Halbfinger, PCCW Global’s Chief Executive Officer.
“Not only will the construction of the AAE-1 complement our existing network and ensure added resilience and security, it will also provide us with new and extensive coverage for future expansion. In particular, it will provide much needed capacity to support the rapid growth that we are seeing in cloud computing and Content Delivery Networks (CDN), driven by our strong presence in the media industry. AAE-1 is set to revolutionize communications between Asia and Africa, and the rest of the world, and confirms PCCW Global’s commitment to invest in the region.”