Converge joins Asian consortium on submarine cable

MANILA, Philippines — Converge ICT Solutions Inc. has joined a consortium of Asian telecommunications providers to develop a new submarine cable system that will enhance connectivity between Hong Kong, China, and Southeast Asia.

In a statement, the Filipino fiber broadband provider said it was teaming up with China Mobile International Ltd. (CMI), China Unicom Global (CUG), and PPTEL SEA H2X Sdn Bhd to construct and operate the South East Asia Hainan-Hong Kong Express Cable System (SEA-H2X).

The new submarine cable system, which has a length of about 5,000 kilometers, will connect Hong Kong SAR China, Hainan China, Philippines, Thailand, East Malaysia, and Singapore, with options to extend to Vietnam, Cambodia, West Malaysia and Indonesia.

It will consist of at least eight-fiber pairs between Hong Kong SAR and Singapore, with a design capacity of 160 terabits per second to meet the growing bandwidth requirement in the region.

The system is targeted to be ready-for-service by 2024.

“We are pleased to be a partner in this trans-Asia cable that will respond to the booming data traffic between Hong Kong SAR and Southeast Asia. This submarine cable system will boost the connectivity between our two PoPs (point-of-presence) located in Hong Kong and in Singapore,” Converge CEO and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy said.

“Further, this will serve as a crucial infrastructure to add diversity and redundancy to our international network. We are truly diversifying our international capacity portfolio as transpacific demand will be served by the Bifrost, and now trans-Asia demand will be served by SEA-H2X,” Uy said.

HMN Technologies Co. Ltd has been tapped to build the SEA-H2X cable from the design, manufacturing and deployment of the system.

By employing state-of-the-art optical submarine transmission equipment, the project’s completion is expected to provide the needed additional bandwidth within the region and network diversity.

The construction of SEA-H2X will also respond to the high broadband demand between Hong Kong SAR and Southeast Asia countries by providing needed capacity and faster transmission, and in preparation for the coming 5G era.

“The SEA-H2X cable will provide high-speed, low-latency, and low-cost data connections for customers in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) region, to further accelerate economic development of its members. We sincerely hope construction plans for the SEA-H2X submarine cable can be successfully implemented and acted on as soon as possible,” CMI chairman and CEO Li Feng said.

“Submarine cable is irreplaceable in building robust, secure and accessible global network connections in the digital era. As an important large-bandwidth submarine system in the region, SEA-H2X will further upgrade connectivity to Hong Kong SAR, Hainan SEZ and Southeast Asia countries, boosting unimpeded trade, communication, financial integration along the route,” CUG chairman and president Meng Shusen said separately.