Telecommunications officials in the city said the fibre cable, which is linked seamlessly with other international seabed fibre cables linking America, Europe and Australia, will meet the growing need of telecommunications in the region.

APCN2, 17,000 km in length, links China, Japan, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and other countries and regions.

The cable, which cost 1.4 billion US dollars in the initial phase, currently has a designed transmission capacity of 160 Gbitsper second.

Telecommunications companies from Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia Singapore, and European and American countries were involved in the fibre cable project.

The memorandum on the project was signed in 1999.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2002)