Soon there will be another cable populating the subsea superhighway

China Telecom, China Unicom, Facebook, Tata Communications, and Telstra have all teamed up to sign a turnkey contract for the deployment of the Hong Kong-Americas (HKA) submarine cable network.

The Hong Kong-Americas (HKA) consortium, as they are officially known, has signed the agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks to deliver a submarine cable network which will span more than 13,000km. The new asset will increase connectivity between Hong Kong and the US.

“We are committed to continually investing in our capabilities to meet our customers and partners’ increasing data demands,” said Tata Communications’ CTO, Genius Wong. “Joining the HKA consortium and connecting the new next-generation subsea cable system to our global network means that we are able to offer our customers and partners enhanced speed, diversity and reliability of connectivity between the business hubs of Asia and the US.

“With our growing network – and the cloud, mobility, security and collaboration services which it underpins – as the foundation, our customers and partners are better placed than ever to transform how they operate through new disruptive digital services and expand to new markets with agility.”

“The trust placed upon us by the HKA consortium validates our position as a key player for submarine network infrastructures in the Asia-Pacific region and the reinforcement of our local presence,” said Philippe Piron, President of Alcatel Submarine Networks.

“It also provides a strong platform to further demonstrate our commitment in project management and in the development of local relationships to support operators and content providers for their network and capacity expansion strategies.”

The new cable has promised to deliver greater diversity of connections, enhanced reliability and network efficiency, as well as improving connectivity between data centres in Asia and the US. In terms of the kit being used, Alcatel Submarine Networks has promised it will be top of the line, delivering 80 Tbps transmission capacity.

While it might not be the most glamorous part of the telco space, subsea cables are a crucial one. Google is another company which is boasting about its subsea party, as it announced investment into three new cables recently, one of which will be privately owned by the internet search giant.