Internet and society: High-speed Internet access for South-Eastern Asia and Japan

A consortium including Google and KDDI Corp. of Japan signed a deal to build and operate a $400 million international undersea cable system. Among the members of the consortium are also Globe Telecom, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications companies.

The 8300 km-long cable system will provide faster and more efficient broadband connectivity throughout South-Eastern Asia and Japan. It has a design capacity of 17 Terabits per second (Tbps) upgradable to 23 Tbps, the highest capacity system ever built so far.

It is targeted to be operational by 2012.