AAG Cable Landing Station Inaugurated in the Philippines

Manila, May 27, 2008 - A new cable landing station in the Philippines, the La Union Cable Landing Station for the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable system, inaugurated on Tuesday. Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited La Union to lead the inauguration ceremony.

The US$500 million AAG project is the first high-bandwidth optical fiber submarine cable system with a span of 20,000-kilometer cable network that connects Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the United States.

The AAG submarine cable system is a project of an international consortium of global telecom operators, including AiTi (Brunei Darussalam), CAT Telecom (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), REACH (Hong Kong), StarHub (Singapore), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam).

The construction of the AAG submarine cable system enables the Philippines to become Asia’s new hub for regional and transpacific connectivity and at the same time, meeting the expected rapid growth industries that depend on advanced telecom services and further propels the country’s economic development, according to a statement released by the Philippines government.

It is expected that the AAG submarine cable system will be ready for service in the second quarter of 2009.