The ADC submarine cable is ready to be put into operation starting from December 2024
ADC (Asia Direct Cable) - The latest submarine cable in the Intra-Asia region, spanning nearly 10.000 km with an initial capacity of over 160 Tbps, will officially be commercially operational in December 2024.
On December 18, 2024, Viettel Solutions Corporation, a subsidiary of the Viettel Group, along with leading regional telecom operators including China Telecom (China), China Unicom, NT (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), Singtel (Singapore), Softbank (Japan), and Tata Communications hosted the inauguration ceremony for the ADC submarine cable in Hanoi. Over the past 8 years, this is the highest-capacity and newest submarine optical fiber cable system to be put into operation, connecting East Asia and Southeast Asia, with a total cable length of nearly 10.000 km. The ADC cable connects to 7 landing stations in countries along the cable route, including Japan, Hong Kong SAR, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam (in Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh).
In terms of design, the cable features an 8-fiber pair (8FP) configuration on the main route from Singapore to Hong Kong and Japan, using high-density wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology. The initial design capacity exceeds 160 Tbps and is capable of supporting the latest technologies in the future. Notably, the ADC submarine cable is designed to directly connect to the largest data centers in Asia, including those in Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.
After 6 years of implementation, overcoming numerous challenges, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain disruptions, and political tensions and conflicts worldwide. Nine investors (Viettel, Softbank, China Telecom Global, China Telecom Corporation, China Unicom, Singtel, TATA Communications, National Telecom, PLDT) and the contractor NEC successfully completed the deployment and signed the project acceptance on November 8, 2024. This is an important milestone for the official operation of the ADC cable line starting from December 19, 2024.
Among them, Viettel is the only investor in Vietnam that owns one fiber pair (FP) on the main route, with a minimum design capacity of 20 Tbps, and also owns the entire submarine cable branch and landing station in Vietnam. Once operational, ADC will be the largest submarine cable in Vietnam, with a capacity twice tha of the current largest cable, AAE-1.
This fifth submarine cable of Viettel will provide a large, high-speed capacity for international connectivity from Vietnam, meeting the demands of high-speed, high-bandwidth services and technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4.0), such as 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), and more. Additionally, it will enhance redundancy, security, and sustainability for Viettel's internet infrastructure in particular, and for Vietnam's internet infrastructure in general.
“NEC is honoured to have taken part in this prestigious project, which will support increasingly bandwidth-intensive applications driven by technological advancements in 5G, the cloud, the Internet-of-Things and Artificial Intelligence”, said Tomonori Uematsu, Senior Vice President with NEC Corporation.
At the inauguration ceremony, Mr. Pham Trung Kien, Deputy CEO of Viettel Solutions Corporation, emphasized: “Along with the currently operating submarine cables such as TGN-IA, AAG, APG, and AAE-1, the ADC submarine cable will be a powerful support, helping to offload traffic from other cables. This will contribute to enhancing network safety, national cybersecurity, as well as improving the quality of telecommunications services that Viettel provides to its customers”.
Thus, after 8 years since the AAE-1 submarine cable connecting Vietnam to international networks was launched in 2017, Vietnam now has an additional high-capacity submarine cable ready for operation. This also marks the newest cable in the Intra-Asia region in the past 8 years.
This submarine cable also serves as evidence of Viettel's efforts in implementing the strategy for developing international submarine optical fiber systems set by the Ministry of Information and Communications, with a roadmap through 2030 and a vision for 2035.
Also in 2024, Viettel Solutions, along with leading regional telecom operators, invested in the ALC submarine cable project to connect major Hubs in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, the company officially announced the VTS submarine cable project, which directly connects Vietnam and Singapore in partnership with Singtel. This is expected to be the shortest cable route directly linking Vietnam to Singapore, the largest Digital Hub in Asia, with the most advanced bandwidth and technology. From there, it continues to affirm that Viettel is No.1 enterprise in international connectivity infrastructure in Vietnam.
