Alcatel-Lucent signed on to help Camapana, a Singapore telecommunications infrastructure firm, build what it claims is the first private subsea Internet cable into Myanmar. The new cable, called the Myanmar-Malaysia-Thailand-International Connection or MYPHIC, is said to deliver 300 gigabits per second capacity to the South Asian country’s more than 50 million residents.
“The whole of Myanmar had about 100 gigabits per second of international capacity. So we’re going to come in with three times what the entire country has as an opening play,” explained Campana business development chief Julian Rawle.
For its part, Alcatel-Lucent will be in charge of the project from start to finish including a preliminary ocean survey.
“We will be in charge of the project from A to Z, meaning that we will design the cable, manufacture the cable, we will lay the cable and commission the system,” said Francesca Cazzaniga, marketing communications director for Alcatel-Lucent.
This will be Myanmar’s second undersea fiber optic cable. The only current leasable cable is governed by state-run operator Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications. The monopoly has allowed the carrier to drive bandwidth costs up by ten times what Singapore pays and double Thailand’s current prices.
The new cable, which will be carrier neutral, is expected to increase capacity while driving down costs. The project is scheduled to begin in April 2017, and is estimated to take around 15 months to complete.
