Superloop completes Hong Kong subsea cable installation
Asia-Pacific fibre infrastructure company Superloop has completed the marine installation of its Hong Kong subsea cable TKO Express.
The cable stretches between Chai Wan on Hong Kong Island and Tseung Kwan O (TKO) Industrial Estate -- Hong Kong's new major hub for technology, datacentre, financial, and media companies, as well as submarine cable landing stations -- on the mainland.
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TKO Express comprises 1,728 fibre cores and is designed to be a direct, low-latency connection between the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the datacentres located at TKO Industrial Estate.
It will now undergo end-to-end testing before it is commissioned into the Hong Kong 2,000-fibre core backbone network, and is slated to be ready for use by customers next month.
The cable's installation follows Superloop entering an agreement to construct and run the fibre-optic network in Hong Kong, to which it holds a 25-year indefeasible right of use, back in December 2015.
The Superloop (Hong Kong) subsidiary was granted a Unified Carrier Licence by the Hong Kong Office of the Communications Authority in August of that year.
In June last year, Superloop announced that it was hoping to raise AU$35.3 million through a fully underwritten one-for-seven pro-rata accelerated entitlement offer of shares for the purpose of funding its Asian network expansion. The retail component of its entitlement raised AU$22.45 million.
At the end of 2015, Superloop similarly raised AU$7.4 million through its share purchase plan (SPP) offer for the express purpose of building out its network in Hong Kong.
"Our network traverses the major business, financial, and technology districts of Hong Kong, and will be significantly enhanced when Superloop completes TKO Express, our new domestic submarine cable providing the most direct and lowest-latency path between our core network in the datacentre campuses of Chai Wan (on Hong Kong Island) and Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate tech hub on the mainland," Superloop founder CEO Bevan Slattery said in August.
"TKO Industrial Estate is the new major hub for financial, media, technology, and datacentre companies in Hong Kong, with 13 datacentres existing or under construction, including the Hong Kong Stock Exchange datacentre. TKO is also becoming a major hub for submarine cable landing stations providing direct access to international internet connectivity."
Superloop announced an FY16 net loss of AU$7.2 million due to its activities in building out fibre, datacentres, and submarine cable landing stations across the Asia-Pacific region.
Over the year, Superloop installed more than 190km of fibre, connected 15 datacentres and cable landing stations, and connected 19 enterprise buildings. As of June 30, it had 160 active customers, 378km of fibre, 52 active datacentres and cable landing stations, and 22 on-net enterprise buildings.