Called StarHub Crossing, the partnership aims to establish a terrestrial network in Singapore and connect the Republic to Asia Global Crossing's East Asia Crossing subsea system.
When completed, the subsea system will link Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the Philippines and possibly China.
StarHub Crossing also aims to provide telehouse facilities to other carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISP), local Service Based Operators (SBO) and Facilities Based Operators (FBO) in Singapore, said StarHub senior vice president International & Wholesale John Poston.
A telehouse is a secure commercial facility that houses telecommunications and IT infrastructure such as switches, routers and servers.
Services are expected to be deployed by early January 2002, said Asia Global Crossing Asia Pacific vice president for Strategy and Business Development Anthony D Christie.
Nasdaq-listed Asia Global Crossing provides telecommunications and Internet Protocol services through undersea cables, terrestrial networks, city fiber rings and complex Web hosting data centers.
(Asia Global Crossing's largest shareholders include Global Crossing, Softbank and Microsoft. In Hong Kong, Global Crossing and Hutchison Whampoa Limited have a 50:50 joint venture called Hutchison Global Crossing.)
Investments, revenue
According to Poston, the US$20 million investment will cover infrastructure costs--including fiber optic cable and backhaul networks implementation.
To a question, he noted that StarHub should earn about S$85 million (US$50 million) from the new venture in five years' time. This is said to be part of StarHub Crossing's expected revenue of about US$100 million over that period.
Various industry experts point out that the StarHub Crossing could stir some competition for incumbent Singapore Telecommunication Ltd (SingTel) as an alternative avenue for wholesale, broadband connection.
When contacted, a SingTel spokesperson said: "We are still confident of maintaining our market share and we believe this will create new opportunities in the region for both customers and service providers.
"Our quality of service will speak for itself and we believe that our experience in this area has already garnered the confidence of our corporate customers."
For the first three quarters ending December 2000, SingTel's Internet-related businesses (corporate and consumer) contributed a total of S$646 million in revenue.
Of this, its International Leased Circuit (ILC) and Local Leased Circuit (LLC) businesses contributed S$465 million while SingNet, Magix and Singapore Internet Exchange (STIX) had a combined revenue of S$181 million.
Asia Global Crossing last traded at US$4.37 on the Nasdaq.
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