The epicentre of action for connectivity driven growth in business operations that are in various stages of digital transformation led by hyperscale growth of Cloud, Content, Broadband Internet and Enterprise WAN is unarguably shifting to APAC. Of all the geographic regions globally, APAC with a cluster of 15 countries including Australia and New Zealand has unique geographic spread with multiple developed and rapidly developing countries with surging industrialization and buoyant knowledge economies topped with liberalized regulatory frameworks that encourages healthy competition with growth in telecom infrastructure.

PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, and Chinese technology and industrial giant, the HENGTONG Group, have signed a cooperation agreement to connect China to Europe and Africa via the Pakistan East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) undersea cable project, a new high-speed connection which is planned to go live in early 2020.

Multinational telecoms company, Angola Cables has announced that it has entered into a strategic business partnership with Silica Networks in Argentina and Silica Networks in Chile to connect their terrestrial fiber networks to the recently commissioned South Atlantic Cable System (SACS).

SACS will be Silica Networks’ preferred route in the Southern Hemisphere, providing fiber operators and content providers in Argentina and Chile with a direct routing between South America and Africa with onward connections to markets in Asia.

HAWAIKI Cable was awarded BEST PROJECT OF THE YEAR - SUBSEA at the Global Carrier Awards 2018 on Wedesday night in London. Hawaiki Cable beat the shortlists including South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) by CAMTEL, GlobeNet, and MEREA by Telxius, Microsoft & Facebook.  Hawaiki Cable is a game changing 15,000 km subsea cable connecting Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Pacific Island, Hawaii and Oregon, USA. Hawaiki Cable changes the capacity market in New Zealand and Australia, as well as other countries in Pacific Islands.

[Suzhou, China, October 22, 2018] PEACE Cable International Network Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of HENGTONG Group, are pleased to announce today, in conjunction with Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd, that the PEACE Cable project has entered into the cable and material manufacturing stage.

The PEACE Cable system spanning 12,000 km will connect Asia, Africa and Europe and is targeted to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2020.

Orange announced on Friday its collaboration with Google on the 6,600km Dunant submarine cable connecting the United States to the French Atlantic coast.  Orange will be the French landing partner on the Dunant cable project, build and operate the landing station on the French Atlantic coast and provide the backhaul service to Paris. Earlier in July, Google and TE SubCom announced to build the Dunant submarine cable system, as the second private cable invested and owned by Google. 

Paris, October 04, 2018 – SAEx International Ltd and Alcatel Submarine Networks, a subsidiary of Nokia, today announced they have signed an agreement to commence desk top study, permitting and survey activities for a new 25,000km submarine cable network linking Asia, South Africa and the Americas. SAEx will provide both capacity and redundancy to meet the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth hungry markets with ultra-broadband access around the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, enhancing the role of digital connectivity in regional economic development.

According to Telxius, MAREA cable system has incresed its design capacity to 200Tbps from its initial 160Tbps. MAREA cable project jointly completed by Facebook, Microsoft and Telxius is shortlisted as the Project of the Year - Subsea for the Global Carrier Awards 2018.

SAEx International Ltd, a Mauritian company with its principal office in Mauritius, announced recently its plans to expand its reach to the US East Coast through Sparkle’s Pan-American network, in line with SAEx business model based on cooperation with other operators. It is a good solution to use Sparkle's existing and operating fiber pairs in Seabras-1 cable system to extend SAEx1 cable to the US. 

Tokyo, Japan and Luanda, Angola, 1 October 2018 - Angola Cables S.A. and NEC Corporation  (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today that the construction of the world's first submarine cable system across the South Atlantic has been completed and is now ready for commercial service. The South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) will connect Angola and Brazil, directly linking the African continent to Latin America across the South Atlantic for the first time, enabling high speed and large capacity international data transmissions, spurring trade and economic growth in both regions.

At the end of August 2018, during the fourth Asia-Pacific Cable Summit, Hengtong Marine Cable System Co., Ltd. signed a memorandum and agreement with Pakistani Internet service provider Cybernet and Djibouti Telecom on the PEACE submarine cable project. On September 28, 2018, Sun Xiaohua, Chief Operating Officer of Hengtong Marine Cable System Co., Ltd., represented Hengtong to accept an exclusive interview with Network Telecom on the PEACE submarine cable project during Submarine Network World 2018.

Global Carrier Awards event is wholesale telecom's' largest global industry celebration. Taking place as part of Capacity Europe 2018, The Global Carrier Awards 2018 will unite 400+ industry leaders from across the international carrier community for an evening packed with fine wining and dining, fantastic live entertainment and plenty of big winners to toast and applaud! Capacity Media announced the shortlisted candidates for the Global Carrier Awards 2018 on September 24^th, 2018.

According to Telstra Global, the Indigo Consortium announed on Wednesday 19, Septermber 2018 a significant milestone in the implementation of the INDIGO subsea cable system with the landing of the INDIGO West cable at Floreat Beach in Perth. This marks the completion of work to lay the first section of cable across approximately 2400km from Christmas Island to Perth. Work to lay the second section of the INDIGO West cable between Singapore and Indonesia will start this month and is expected to be completed by the end of December 2018. The Indigo Consortium comprises AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners (acquired by Superloop) and Telstra.

Telecom Egypt (TE) announced on Monday it has concluded the acquisition of the Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) from Orascom Investment Holding (OIH) through its subsidiary Egyptian International Submarine Cable Company (EISCC) at a total value of $90 million. The acquisition of MENA cable system was approved by its Board of Directors in May 2018.