Taipei  - Several Asian countries plan to jointly build a third Asia-Pacific undersea cable to bring faster internet service to the region, Taiwan media reported Thursday.

   The countries plan to jointly invest 500 million dollars to lay the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 3 (APCN3), according to the Economic Daily News and the Commercial Times, which cited unnamed Chunghwa Telecom Co sources.

   The APCN3 would link Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

   The main companies involved in the venture - including Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, China's China Unicom Ltd and China Telecom Corp, Singapore's Starhub Ltd and Japan's KDDI Corp - were expected to sign a contract next month.

   APCN3 was scheduled to be finished by 2013, the reports said. The undersea cable would be 11,000 kilometres long and have a larger capacity than the APCN2, which is 10 years old and frequently breaks down.