FPT Telecom Joint Stock Co.: Going to big sea

Asia – America Gateway – AAG is a nautical cable system connecting 10 countries of
Asia – Pacific Ocean and America with the length of 20,000km,
total capacity of 1,92Tbps (one Tp is equivalent to 1,000Gb).

Ms. Chu Thanh Ha said that investment capital of the whole fiber optical cable system is up to USD 560 million. After 2 years joining this alliance, with an equity capital of USD 10 million, FPT Telecom has the right to own 1.7% of the system and has the right to exploit capacity equivalent to 40 Gbps.

On November 10^th, 2009, AAG officially announced the date of Ready to For Service (RFS) to the press and, after more than one month of preparation for transmission and connection channels to inland stations, AAG members have been able to put the first channels into operation.

On December 30^th, 2009, the first two channels 2.5Gbps of FPT Telecom for international transit IP service have been put into operation after urgent preparation with partners in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Regarding the significance of such connection, Mr. Le Viet Thanh Luan, Deputy Chief of FPT Telecom’s Board of Telecommunication and Quality Assurance said: “With new international capacity of 5Gbps, the activated capacity AAG accounts for 1/5 capacity of FPT Telecom’s current international internet capacity”. Mr. Luan also said that FPT Telecom had expected to activate and keep using new capacity of 20G through AAG system in the first quarter of 2010.

Apart from expanding international bandwidth, AAG is also the second international output port of FPT Telecom. Such landing fiber optical cable system in Vung Tau will support inland fiber optical cable system of FPT Telecom through Vietnam – China border (connecting to China Telecom in Lang Son), which completely removes the risk of communication disconnection caused by the disconnection of only an output port as happened in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

In addition, “the participation in AAG alliance with 18 members including the leading international telecommunication corporations such as AT&T, Telstra, TM, etc has brought an opportunity for FPT Telecom to connect to a dynamic and potential newly telecommunication environment, which is full of challenges”, Mr. Luan said regarding opportunities of FPT Telecom for such connection event.

He affirmed “We are able to establish international connection in much shorter time than it was in the past. We are independent and have many choices of partners for international telecom services including internet, dedicated rental channel, establishment of overseas PoP stations, voice and connection and other bilateral capacity exchanges”.

During the progress of deploying the fiber optical cable system, AAG is divided into 6 subcommittees coordinating with each other in building and operating the fiber optical cable system under the leading management of MC (Management Committee). Regarding technique, AR &RSC Subcommittee (Assignments, Routing and Restoration Subcommittee) is a general management subcommittee of technical system in the building period. Representatives of FPT Telecom have participated in these both subcommittees.

Referring experience of FPT Telecom in the first time of joining a nautical fiber optical cable system, Mr. Luan said that: “Though joining late, apart from main role of investor to vote for general matters of the system, FPT Telecom also participates in the management subcommittees as a learner and aims at capturing and updating full information to optimally use the capacity granted and simultaneously supervises the system’s operation. The progress of building a big nautical cable system like AAG shows the extreme complexity, which requires professional organization and high cooperation among the members with partners and governments of the countries because AAG constantly faces with difficulties and objective and subjective breakdowns that cause delay in completion deadline from February 23^rd, 2009 to November 10^th, 2009”.

With a great demand of using international bandwidth which continuously increases from 100% to over 150% each year and with increasing requirements on quality and service safety, the participation in building and owning other nautical cable systems is a very important step in telecommunication development strategy of FPT Telecom.

In near future, FPT Telecom expects to keep upgrading connection of the inland cable system with China Telecom and China Unicom and simultaneously continues expanding investment in new nautical cable systems, including APG (Asia Pacific Gateway).

Such infrastructures will create favorable conditions for FPT Telecom in the process of “going to big sea” to connect to international telecommunication service network as well as to implement business expansion strategy of the Corporation in the country and the “Go mass” strategy determined by FPT Corporation.