A new high-capacity international submarine cable system — the Asia Link Cable, or ALC — successfully landed in Hong Kong on Thursday, marking a major milestone for the project's anticipated full commercial operation later this year.
Jointly built by a consortium of 12 domestic and international telecom operators including China Unicom and China Telecom, the ALC is the first international submarine cable to land in China during the country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period.
Spanning approximately 6,100 kilometers, the cable covers key digital hubs including China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China's Hainan province, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, serving as a critical digital artery linking China with Southeast Asia.
In the modern information age, undersea cables have become a strong foundation for digital connectivity, Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, said in an interview with UN News.
Trillions of dollars in transactions in the global economy and the continuous accessibility of information pass through the cables. About 99 percent of international internet traffic goes through submarine cables, he said.
