Called StarHub Crossing, the new venture is expected to establish a terrestrial network in Singapore that will connect to Asia Global Crossing's East Asia Crossing subsea system. The latter, when completed, links Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the Philippines and possibly China.
The new venture will also provide telehouse facilities here to other carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISP), local Service Based Operators (SBO) and Facilities Based Operators (FBO), 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.
Both projects are expected to completed by year end, with services ready 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.
Investments, revenue
According to Poston, the US$20 million investment will cover infrastructure costs, such as the laying of fiber optic cable and backhaul networks--terrestrial links that are used to connect a main switching center to remote systems gathering information.
He noted to a query that StarHub should earn about S$85 million (roughly 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.
Some industry experts point out that the StarHub Crossing could stir some competition for SingTel as an alternative avenue for wholesale broadband connection.
When contacted for comment, 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 the customers and the 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."
When asked how much of SingTel's revenues may overlap with StarHub Crossing's services, she noted that SingTel's International Leased Circuit (ILC) and Local Leased Circuit (LLC) businesses have contributed S$465 million in its first three quarters ending December 2000.
Meanwhile, SingNet, Magix and Singapore Internet Exchange (STIX) had a combined revenue of S$181 million for the same period.
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