Reach Limited is a Bermuda-incorporated holding company. It is a joint venture of

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

and

Hong Kong Telecom HKT Limited (), also known as Hong Kong Telecom (), is one of the largest telecommunications companies of Hong Kong. It has a dominant position in fixed-line, mobile, IDD and broadband services in Hong Kong. HKT Group is a subsidiary of PCCW sin ...

. Reach, headquartered in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, has interests in more than 40 submarine cables (including AJC, APCN2,

CUCN CUCN or China-US Cable Network was a submarine communications cable, submarine telecommunications cable linking several countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It was retired from service in December 201 It has cable landing point, landing points in ...

, Japan–US,

RNAL Reach North Asia Loop (RNAL) is a multi-terabit intra-Asia self-healing submarine telecommunications cable system, connecting the principal cities in Asia. The 10,000 km cable network provides intra-regional, city-to-city connectivity between ...

, SEA-ME-WE 3) and international satellite systems, mainly servicing the Asia Pacific area. Reach has operating licenses and landing rights in most major markets including Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, North America and Europe.

History

Reach was established as a joint venture between

and

PCCW PCCW Limited (formerly known as Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited) is a Hong Kong-based information and communications technology (ICT) company. The company is the majority owner of telecommunications company HKT Limited, and also holds a maj ...

in 2001. Telstra and PCCW injected their international assets, including subsea cables, gateways and satellite capacity into Reach. These assets were supplemented later the same year by the acquisition of

Level 3 Communications Level 3 Communications was an American multinational telecommunications and Internet service provider company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. It ultimately became a part of CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies), where Level 3 President ...

' Asian assets. After financial difficulties, its shareholders negotiated a debt settlement in June 2004, and it is now financially stable. Reach was restructured, and in 2005 announced that nearly all future expansion would be used for Telstra and PCCW requirements, though it would continue to service its other customers. In 2011, PCCW transferred the 50% stake of Reach to its subsidiary

(HKT). In January 2011, Reach sold FLAG North Asia Loop System to

PCCW Global HKT Limited (), also known as Hong Kong Telecom (), is one of the largest telecommunications companies of Hong Kong. It has a dominant position in fixed-line, mobile, IDD and broadband services in Hong Kong. HKT Group is a subsidiary of PCCW si ...

(Singapore), a subsidiary of HKT.

Network

The company operates of network cables connecting 240 countries and territories.

Working with FBI

Telstra was compelled to strike a 2001 deal with the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

and the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

to give them surveillance access to the undersea cables owned by its subsidiary Reach, a new

document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" or ...

released online and provided to Crikey reveals.

References

External links

* Telecommunications companies of Hong Kong Joint ventures Telecommunications companies established in 2001 Pacific Century Group Telstra {{HK-company-stub