NTT Communications has extended the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) to Cambodia to provide reliable, high-capacity communication infrastructure for the increasing number of multinational companies operating in the Mekong region.

The extension is based on an agreement that NTT Com has reached with Chuan Wei (Cambodia) Co Ltd, in which NTT Com will lay Cambodia’s first submarine optical fiber cable.

The ASE will provide highly reliable, high-capacity communications connecting Cambodia and other countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) with major locations elsewhere in Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

The arrival of the ASE in Cambodia will also enable NTT Com to provide local customers with even higher quality internet network services.

“This is really a big breakthrough that NTT has established and partnered in Cambodia,” Carmelo Ople, the director of Global Business Solutions, Global Connectivity at NTT Singapore told DatacenterDynamics FOCUS.

“It was really exciting working with some of the partners in Cambodia to make this a reality.”

Aside from the significant milestone of laying the first submarine optical fiber cable in Cambodia, Ople talked about the potential of reaching the large population and land area within the Mekon area and how this development can help fuel the economic growth in the area.

“It is an area that is untapped, and there is big potential there,” he said.

Unlike some older submarine cables in the region, the ASE is designed to bypass areas that are prone to seismic activities such as the Bashi Channel and the south coast of Taiwan.

In December 2006, for example, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck off the southwest coast of Taiwan damaged multiple submarine cables and severely disrupted internet services in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.

The ASE also takes the shortest route of any submarine cable connecting Japan to Hong Kong and Singapore.

In addition, NTT Com separately announced on Tuesday it will expand its global IP network footprint with a new Point-of-Presence in Bangkok, Thailand beginning July 1.

Located next to Cambodia, Thailand has a population of 67m and a 70% compound annual growth in international IP traffic. This makes it one of the fastest-growing markets for Internet-related business in Asia.

Thailand will function as the center of the GMS, said NTT Comm, and the new PoP also will enhance the Internet environment throughout the GMS which has a population of approximately 300m.