Military telecom group Viettel said it has spent US$50 million to connect the AAE-1 international submarine cable network with its station in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

The 23,000km system, stretching across Asia, Africa and Europe, costs an accumulated $820 million, financed by 20 partners from 18 countries, including Viet Nam's Viettel and VNPT.

In late June, the AAE-1 cable project management board announced that the fibre optic cable system was officially completed and ready for service.

With various branch points, the system connects Hong Kong (China), Viet Nam, Cambodia and Thailand, as well as Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar and Pakistan, along with India, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. It also connects Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Egypt, as well as Greece, Italy and France.

The AAE-1 uses 100Gbps DWDM-based wavelength technology with design capacity of over 40 terabits (equivalent to 80 100Gbps wavelengths) and can be upgraded to latest wavelength-matching technologies in the future.

AAE-1 is the fourth submarine cable system to be invested by Viettel, besides AAG, IA, APG, and AAE-1. The telecom network is the only local partner to host the cable landing station in Việt Nam with capacity of 2.5Tbps.

AAE-1 project is expected to contribute to meet the increasing demand for international transmission capacity of Viettel, while enhancing safety and capacity in case of incidents for Viettel’s international transmission network (sharing the load with other submarine cable systems owned by Viettel such as AAG, IA, APG). — VNS