CAHAYA MALAYSIA BEGINS ITS OPERATION

TM’s latest submarine cable system offers lowest latency between Malaysia to Japan and Hong Kong

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today announced that its latest international submarine cable system, Cahaya Malaysia which links Malaysia to Japan will begin carrying Internet traffic on 20 August 2012; while its link to Hong Kong is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2013.

Cahaya Malaysia, which began its construction back in January 2011 is TM’s wholly owned 2-fiber-pair system within the 6-fiber-pair Asia Submarine cable Express (ASE) system linking Malaysia to Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore.

Commenting on the commissioning of Cahaya Malaysia, Mohamad Rozaimy Abd Rahman, Executive Vice President of Global, TM said, “We are excited with the rollout of our latest submarine cable system as it marks yet another historic milestone not only to TM, but also to Malaysian telecommunications industry as Cahaya Malaysia is TM’s largest investment in a single international submarine cable system to date. This project also demonstrated TM’s commitment to invest in the development of IP communications in the Asian region and to provide a faster and resilient Internet connection, hence a better surfing experience for Internet users.”

ASE is deployed with total carrying capacity of exceeding 15 terabits per second (Tbps) riding on a 40 Gbps Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical technology and will eventually incorporate 100 Gbps technology. The ASE cable system is a collaboration between Malaysia’s TM, Japan’s NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and Singapore’s StarHub.

The low-latency cable which spans over 7,800 km was meticulously developed to maximise reliability, withstanding earthquake and typhoon damage and cover the shortest distance to Japan.

Cahaya Malaysia will enhance TM’s reliable global network services by boosting the capacity and strengthening the company’s ability to provide Malaysia with better regional reach and seamless interconnections. This cable system will provide an alternative, diverse routing within the Asia-Pacific region to avoid areas prone to seismic activities which are hazardous to undersea cables. This cable system also has the potential to provide an alternative route as well as restoration paths to existing cable systems in the region as it is designed to provide seamless interconnection to existing trans-Pacific cable systems linking Asia-Pacific to North America such as UNITY, Trans Pacific Express (TPE), Tata Global Network (TGN), PC-1 and the Japan-US Cable Network (JUSCN).


“As the nation’s leading telecommunications provider, TM is working hand-in-hand with the Government in fulfilling the aspiration of Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), especially in the Communications and Content Infrastructure or CCI area. This investment for Cahaya Malaysia falls directly under Entry Point Projects (EPP) 10 of the ETP, “Extending the Regional Network” as this cable system enables us to provide Malaysians with better regional reach and a highly dependable regional network,” Rozaimy further elaborated.

The landing station of Cahaya Malaysia is located in Mersing, which also lands other major cables systems - the Asia America Gateway (AAG) and the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 (SEA-ME-WE3).

TM owns and leases capacity on more than 10 submarine cable systems, which span more than 60,000 fiber-route miles around the globe, including several submarine cable routes that the company uses to carry traffic between the Asia-Pacific region and North America.

Besides Cahaya Malaysia, TM is also member of the various consortiums for submarine cable systems in the region, which include AAG, SEA-ME-WE3, South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE4), Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2), Batam Dumai Melaka (BDM), Batam Rengit Cable Sytem (BRIGHT) and Dumai Melaka Cable system (DMCS). Additionally TM also invests in other cable systems such as JUSCN, China - US Cable System (CUCN) and South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE).

For more information on TM, visit www.tm.com.my.