A 9,000km transpacific broadband cable system is now operational. Dubbed “FASTER”, the system’s aim is to meet the growing demand for broadband Internet connections between North America and Asia.
The system was built by Japan’s NEC Corporation with the support of China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, Google, KDDI and Singtel.
“This epoch-making cable will not only bring benefits to the United States and Japan, but to the entire Asia-Pacific region,” said Kenichi Yoneyama, project manager at NEC’s submarine network division.
Singtel vice president Ooi Seng Keat said the new cable “provides continuous connectivity and sufficiently high capacity for cloud, video streaming, analytics and the Internet of Things, that will help spur innovation on both sides of the Pacific to stimulate the growth of the digital economy.”
Due to the use of optimised fibre throughout, the six-fibre pair cable can deliver 60Tbps of bandwidth across the Pacific, which is about 10 million times faster than the standard cable modem.