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 related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

and

Hong Kong Telecom HKT Limited (), also known as Hong Kong Telecom (), is one of the largest telecommunications companies in 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 ...

. Reach, headquartered in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, has interests in more than 40 submarine cables (including AJC, APCN2, CUCN, Japan–US, RNAL,

SEA-ME-WE 3 SEA-ME-WE3 or South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 was an optical submarine telecommunications cable linking those regions and is the longest in the world. Completed in late 2000, it is led by France Telecom and China Telecom, and i ...

) 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 communication technology (ICT) and telecommunications company. The company is the major owner of telecommunications company HKT Limited, ...

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, Inc. 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 Pres ...

' 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 in 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 ...

(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 Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

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 U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equ ...

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

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

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