The construction contract was signed in Beijing on December 21 between Vietnam Telecom International (VTI) and its partners Chungwa Telecom from China, the KT Corporation from the Republic of Korea, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation from Japan.

The cable system will have a total capacity of 54.8Tbps transferring from 40Gbps optical switching technology.

By deploying the digital coherent detection (DCD) and optical add-drop multiplexing (OADM) technologies, APG enables the future system to be upgraded to 100Gbps to meet the ever increasing data traffic in the region's mobile phone and internet markets.

The project, which is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2014, will provide customers with direct and effective high-speed broadband connections.