The Hong Kong-Americas (HKA) consortium has selected Alcatel Submarine Networks to deploy its submarine cable network, which will span more than 13,000 kilometres between Hong Kong and the US, with the objective of delivering a bandwidth boost between the two continents.
The network will feature six fibre pairs, connecting from Chung Hom Kok in Hong Kong to Hermosa Beach in California. There is also potential for additional connectivity options to be exercised in the future. Using the provider's submarine wavelength-selective switch, reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer units and repeaters, the system is designed to enable more than 80Tb/s transmission capacity. It is also compatible with future generations of submarine line terminal equipped with probabilistic shaping technology. This open design, says the company, will help to deliver significant cost benefits as well as the enhanced bandwidth availability.
Alcatel Submarine Networks is also helping to connect other markets, having recently been specified as the preferred builder by another consortium – which includes Google amongst its members – of the Indigo submarine cable system, connecting Singapore, Indonesia and Australia (see Google invests in Indigo undersea cable in Southeast Asia).
The HKA consortium includes China Telecom, China Unicom, Facebook, Tata Communications and Telstra, and the project is due for completion in 2020.
