TM贊助Capacity Asia 2007大會

CAPACITY ASIA 2007 TO FOCUS ON GROWTH POTENTIAL OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC WHOLESALE TELECOMS MARKET

The upcoming Capacity Asia 2007 congress in Kuala Lumpur will assemble decision makers representing various telecommunications infrastructure players from around the region to discuss core issues affecting the telecommunications wholesale capacity business including the effect of sub-sea cable investment on the future shape of the Asia-Pacific market, key drivers of capacity demand and new opportunities in the region’s growth markets.

With Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) as its lead sponsor, this year’s event is held in Malaysia for the first time. The congress also seeks to assess the current status of new cable investments and implications for competition in the Asia Pacific wholesale market, including the impact on pricing in the region.

Like other telcos in the region, TM has invested heavily in infrastructure for additional capacity in the past year. This includes its investment in the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) estimated to be RM1.8 billion, where TM is leading the consortium of 19 major international telecommunications providers to build the first high-bandwidth optical fibre submarine cable system linking the South East Asia region directly to the United States of America (USA).

The AAG is set to provide an alternative and a more secure link for traffic from the South East Asia region to the USA. This low risk route was designed to avoid the volatile and hazardous seismic areas, thus mitigating the effects from natural disasters like undersea earthquakes and tsunamis, which have previously damaged submarine cable systems, resulting in major disruptions to international Internet links. The 20,000km long AAG cable system is designed to provide a capacity of up to 1.92 Terabits per seconds of data bandwidth when completed in December 2008.

Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia Business, TM said: “We learnt an important lesson from the Taiwan earthquake in December last year and its effect on the undersea cable network in the region. Initiatives are already underway for the development of alternative routes to ensure network continuity and diversity. To take things further, we are also capitalising on the emergence of South East Asia as an alternative route for Pan-Asian and international traffic.”

“This meeting of minds during Capacity Asia 2007 among the influential regional telecommunications players will certainly pave way towards growing this business in new markets and overcoming the regulatory barriers of gaining access into the under tapped Middle East, Africa and North American markets from our trans-pacific cable investments,” he added.

According to the conference organiser, Mark Kemp, Chief Executive Officer of Telcap, "Capacity magazine is delighted to bring our flagship Capacity Asia conference to Kuala Lumpur this year. By having this important event in Kuala Lumpur, is evident that we recognise the potential and growth in the developing South East Asia wholesale telecommunications markets. We are also delighted to have TM as our lead sponsor, which reaffirms TM's position as not only a domestic service provider but also TM's importance in the international marketplace."

The two-day Capacity Asia 2007 congress will be held at Nikko Hotel Kuala Lumpur on 29 - 30 October 2007. TM will be participating in the keynote panel on the topic “Exploiting the Growth Potential of the Asia-Pacific Wholesale Telecoms Market: Capacity Investment, Evolution of Services and Accessing New Market Opportunities” and will be presenting a paper on “Assessing the Status of New Cable Investment and Implications for Competition in the Asia-Pacific Wholesale Market.”

Other participants in the congress include Australia Japan Cable, Cable & Wireless, Deutsche Telekom Asia, Tiscali International Network, TeliaSonera, Hutchinson Global, PCCW Global, Verizon Business, NTT Communications, Wateen Telecom, China Netcom, Cat Telecom, Sri Lanka Telecom, Asia Netcom, Bharti Airtel and many more.

Capacity Asia is Capacity magazine’s flagship Asia-Pacific wholesale telecom business industry conference organised by Telcap. Apart from the Asian region, these conferences are also held annually in other regions including Latin America; North America; Europe; Middle East & North Africa, Russia, Balkans, and Caribbean.