A consortium of telcos signed a $300-million investment agreement to boost data capacites in the region via the Southeast Asian submarine cable system.
The group is composed of two local telcos - Globe Telecom, Inc. and DITO Telecommunity Corporation, with China Telecom Global Limited (CTG), Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) and Unified National Networks Sdn Bhd (UNN) of Brunei Darussalam.
The Asia Link Cable (ALC) will span 6,000 kilometers, connecting Hong Kong SAR China and Singapore as its trunk, with branches in the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam and Hainan, China.

HMN Technologies Co., Limited (HMN Tech), the system supplier, is expected to complete construction of the ALC by the third quarter of 2025.
ALC will provide additional hyper-capacity within Asia and boost resiliency for international traffic.
It will have a minimum eight fiber pairs in the system, with 18 Terabytes (Tbps) per Fiber Pair, adding more capacity and diversity to existing networks in the region.
“ALC is a great accomplishment of Asian carriers which overcame difficulties of Covid impacts, and it is also the only subsea project with zero face-to-face meetings from the MoU to the C&MA (construction and maintenance agreement) signing in the industry," according to ALC Co-Chair Chang Weiguo (CTG).
"ALC consortium adopts an open and inclusive principle and will attract more investors in the future to make it more cost effective, which will reinforce the resilience of interconnectivity in Asia and better serve digital economy in the region,” he explained.
“We started planning and designing the ALC cable more than two years ago at the onset of the pandemic, having anticipated the inevitable growth in high-definition content consumption, trade and innovation in this region," noted ALC Co-Chair, Alan Tan (Singtel).
"Despite the challenges presented by safe management restrictions, we managed to come up with a system that will help meet the evolving needs of consumers and enterprises and boost local economies today and in the future,” he added.
The new cable system will provide new impetus for the ALC consortium to establish digital and intelligent networks in Asia and around the world, stressed CEO of HMN Tech, Mao Shengjiang.
ALC's open cable system architecture enables parties to select and maintain their independent line terminal equipment that would suit their specific customer requirement.