Pacnet, a leading Asian telecom service provider, is on track to deliver enhanced connectivity across the Pacific with its latest cable extension linking Japan and the United States.

A part of the Unity cable system, EAC Pacific is expected to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2010.

EAC Pacific, which comprises two of the five fiber pairs on the Unity cable system that landed in Chikura, Japan, recently, will be operated independently by Pacnet, Unity’s largest investor.

The two fiber pairs will be seamlessly integrated with Pacnet’s Pan-Asian cable infrastructure, EAC-C2C, creating a single multi-terabit network designed to meet the growing demand for Intra-Asia and Trans-Pacific bandwidth.

The EAC Pacific portion of the Unity cable system will provide up to 1.92 Terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity across the Pacific Ocean, further enhancing connectivity from and into Asia.

This will also enhance the reliability and resiliency of Pacnet’s cable infrastructure by offering additional capacity and route diversity from Japan to Los Angeles and other US West Coast network Points-of-Presence.

Construction of the system was first announced in February 2008 by the consortium comprised of six international companies, including Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel.

The Unity cable system will add up to 4.8 Tbps of bandwidth across the Pacific with construction cost at approximately US$300 million.

NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications were selected for construction of the five fiber pair cable system, with each fiber pair having a capacity of up to 960 Gigabits per second (Gbps). By having a high fiber count, Unity is able to offer more capacity at lower unit costs.

“With the addition of EAC Pacific, Pacnet will own and operate an unparalleled subsea cable system which offers route diversity across Asia and directly connects all major locations within the region to the United States,” said Bill Barney, Chief Executive Officer of Pacnet.

“By delivering the highest performance, lowest latency connections on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, we will be able to meet the growing bandwidth needs of today’s mission critical business applications and the explosive growth of digital content traversing between Asia and North America.”

“Japan is a key location for our cable operations as it is the gateway for traffic between Asia and North America,” Mr.Barney added. “With household broadband penetration across the Asia Pacific expected to double by 2014, Trans-Pacific traffic, which will run through Japan, is set to increase exponentially.”

“As part of our strategy to continuously enhance the geographic reach of our network across Asia, we are on the lookout for opportunities to expand our network towards Central Asia, as well as down south towards Australia,” said Chris Wilson, Pacnet’s Senior Vice President of Business Development and Chairman of the Unity Executive Committee. (EHL)