China approves new trans-Pacific seabed cable

BEIING: China has approved plans to construct a new trans-Pacific seabed cable which will stretch to other parts of Asia and the Americas.

The approval was sanctioned by China's National Development and Reform Commission, state-run China Daily reported today.

The New Cross-Pacific Cable System (known as NCP) will be jointly funded by China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile - the three flagship telecommunication carriers in China - as well as telecom companies in other countries.

The project is intended to accommodate rising demand for international Internet traffic.

According to the design, the NCP will stretch 13,618 kilometres and will have a total capacity of 60 Tb/s. Construction of the cable is expected to start in 2018.