The Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable network, of which Telstra is a key investor, this week won the 'Most Innovative Project' award at the World Communication Awards in London on Monday 17th September. The award was the seccond of the night for Telstra, with CEO Sol Trujillo having already collected the award for Business Innovation.

Providing full route diversity, AAG will be the first direct Terabit submarine cable network between Southeast Asia and the United States, spanning 20,000 km - almost half the length of the equator.

"Throughout the world the industry is creating such a wave, such a flood of innovation, that is making a real difference to business, to our economy and to the way we live. Not only in the developed, industrially advanced world. The telecoms industry, our industry, is helping people become self-sufficient, helping them feed themselves and develop economically. We should all be proud of that." said Alan Burkitt-Gray, Editor of Global Telecoms Business, in his speech at the Awards presentation.

More about the AAG network.

The AAG network is owned by a consortium formed by 10 parties including the Government of Brunei, Telstra (Australia), AT&T (USA), Bharti (India), CAT (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), PT Telkom (Indonesia), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia),  StarHub (Singapore) and VNPT (Vietnam). It will link Malaysia to the U.S. via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the West coast of the U.S. 

The project, scheduled to be completed by late 2008, is expected to meet the forecasted explosive growth in bandwidth requirements for new and revolutionary broadband applications such as IP, video, data, and other multimedia services. Furthermore, it will provide connectivity and the ability to be expanded in the future to Australia, India, Africa, and Europe.