Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) Supply Contract Awarded to NEC

BEIJING and TOKYO, December 20, 2011 – NEC Corporation announced today the signing of a supply contract with the APG consortium including NTT Communications, KT, Chunghwa Telecom, and others, to construct the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) cable system, a high-bandwidth optical submarine cable system that will link 9 countries and territories in Asia.

The APG system is designed for a transmission speed of 40Gb/s per wavelength, utilizing the latest Digital Coherent detection and OADM (Optical Add-Drop Multiplexing) technologies. Total length is expected to be 10,400km, linking China Mainland, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. APG is expected to meet the demand for intra-Asia connectivity between South East Asia and North Asia.

And it is reported that the Agreement for the Construction and Maintenance of the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG C&MA) was also signed earlier today in Beijing.

A news press from Chunghwa Telecom released the total investment of the APG cable system is about NT$15 billion (approximately US$ 500 million).

From the cable map and news released by NEC, it seems the APG cable system won't be landed in the Philippines. As one of the initial party of the APG MOU, PLDT may have given up to invest in the APG cable system.

The APG cable system is scheduled to launch by June 2014.