MANILA, Philippines -- Local telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. has boosted its high-speed Internet capability with the completion of the 20,000-kilometer Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine fiber optic cable network, the first cable system linking South East Asia and the United States.

PLDT, which helped spearhead this project in partnership with other major telcos in the region, announced on Wednesday that the submarine cable network had completed its comprehensive test requirement, a milestone that enabled AAG to begin carrying commercial traffic.

This would more than double the PLDT group's broadband capacity to more than 250 Gigabits per second as well as improve resilience and diversity, PLDT said.

It is likewise seen upgrading the quality of its services to customers such as the broadband Internet users of PLDT and its flagship wireless unit Smart Communications, business process outsourcing companies and call centers, as well as corporate customers.

The new cable system links Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Hong Kong and the Philippines to the United States, where it lands in Guam, Hawaii and California.

The AAG cable network, which has an initial equipped capacity of 500 gbps, has been planned and designed to avoid geographically hazardous areas with known seismic activities, increasing the reliability of the traffic between Southeast Asia and the United States.

In addition to linking the regional markets to the United States, this cable network also provides seamless connectivity to Australia, India, Europe and even Africa via common landing points along its route.

"The AAG consortium teams together with PLDT's network team worked tirelessly to ensure that the cable network was installed and implemented satisfactorily. The commissioning program included a full range of system testing and confidence trials in order to ensure the highest levels of service for the life of the cable," the company said.

The AAG consortium was formed in April 2007 to build this fiber optic submarine cable network.

Aside from PLDT, the consortium is composed of the following: AT&T (United States), Bayan Telecommunications Inc. (Philippines), Bharti AirTel Limited (India), Government of Brunei Darussalam (Brunei), British Telecom Global Network Services (UK), CAT Telecom PCL (Thailand), Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Philippines), FPT Telecom (Vietnam), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Indonesia), Saigon Postel Corporation (Vietnam), StarHub (Singapore), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia), Telcotech Limited (Cambodia), Telstra (Australia), Telecom New Zealand International (New Zealand), Viettel (Vietnam), and Vietnam Post & Telecommunications Group (Vietnam).