wiredinUSA July 2018

Cable joint venture

Australia to fund Solomons connection

LS Cable and System Ltd will establish a 50-50 joint venture with Indonesian conglomerate Artha Graha Group (AG Group) to access the Southeast Asian electric wire market. Under the agreement, signed at the embassy of Indonesia in Yeouido, Seoul, LS Cable and AG Group will invest a total $40 million to build a power cable factory on a 64,000m 2 location near Jakarta, Indonesia. Work will begin in July 2018, and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019. LS Cable and System said that the joint facility will produce overhead electric power lines and low and medium voltage cables used in construction and plants, aiming to generate $100 million in sales in 2025. This will be LS Cable’s seventh production entity across Asia, joining facilities in Vietnam, China, India and Myanmar.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Australia has agreed to fund underwater Internet cables and a cybersecurity center for the Solomon Islands, forestalling plans by Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies that could have compromised Australian Internet security. The arrangement was announced in a joint statement from the two governments during a visit to Canberra by Solomons prime minister Rick Houenipwela. Until Australia stepped in, Huawei was to lay the cables for the Solomons which might have given the Chinese company access to a broadband hub in Sydney. Analysts say that would have raised a “red flag” for Australian Internet security. In April, Australia effectively canceled the Huawei plan with a promise to join the Solomons, and neighboring Papua New Guinea, to high speed Internet via an undersea cable to Sydney, setting aside roughly $200 million in its May budget for the task.

wiredInUSA - July 2018

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