NEC, Alcatel-Lucent win contract for S.E. Asia-U.S. submarine cable.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 Kyodo

NEC Corp. of Japan and Alcatel-Lucent SA of France said Friday they have jointly won a $500 million contract for deploying a Southeast Asia-United States submarine cable.

Spanning over 20,000 kilometers, the Asia America Gateway -- the first direct Terabit submarine cable network between Southeast Asia and the United States -- will link Malaysia to the United States via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, the two companies said in a press release.

The contract will deliver a cable network spanning almost half the length of the equator.

The turnkey contract was signed Friday with a consortium formed by 10 parties, including the Brunei government, AT&T Corp. of the United States, Bharti of India, CAT of Thailand, PLDT of the Philippines, PT Telkom of Indonesia, Telekom Malaysia, Telstra of Australia, StarHub of Singapore and VNPT of Vietnam.

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC will design, manufacture, install, integrate and commission the full network on a turnkey basis, the two companies said, with the project scheduled to be completed by late 2008.

The new cable network is expected to meet the projected explosive growth in bandwidth requirements for new and revolutionary broadband applications such as IP, video, data, and other multimedia services.

In addition to providing full network diversity from the conventional cable routes, which are normally connected via North Asia, the AAG will provide a seamless direct link between the United States and other Asian countries via one single cable.

It will also provide connectivity and the ability to be expanded in the future to Australia, India, Africa, and Europe, NEC and Alcatel-Lucent said.

''We are confident that this new project, rolled out in association with NEC, will further enable voice and data communications, which are vital to support social and economic development,'' said Jean Godeluck, president of Alcatel-Lucent's submarine network activity.

''NEC is confident that our partnership with Alcatel-Lucent brings leading technology and field-proven expertise, empowering our customers to provide the most advanced and reliable services to the end users,'' said Masamichi Imai, executive general manager of the Broadband Networks Operations Unit at NEC.