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Australian telco Telstra is investing in two subsea cables that will connect Hong Kong and the US west coast, shoring up connectivity between Asia and the US. Slated for completion by 2020, the new Hong Kong Americas (HKA) cable, for which Telstra is investing in a half fibre pair, will support the growing internet traffic between Greater China, ASEAN and the US. Other members in the HKA consortium include China Telecom, Facebook and Tata Communications. In addition, Telstra is buying six terabits per second worth of capacity in the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), which will connect Hong Kong and the US when ready in 2019. By offering more direct routes, the two subsea cables will provide lower latency connectivity between the US and Asia than the current Asia-America Gateway (AAG), according to Telstra. “As economic growth continues in China and South East Asia, so too does the demand for data,” said David Burns, Telstra’s group managing director of global services and international. “Together with the current AAG cable, on...