For provision of cable-based external fixed service, an interested party is required to obtain a UCL (External) from the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) of Hong Kong SAR. Apart from leasing capacity on existing submarine cables for provision of service, a holder of UCL (External) may also choose to land their own cables in Hong Kong, either by using an existing CLS or building a new CLS.

As of January 2022, there are 12 submarine cable systems connecting Hong Kong, namely, Asia Africa Europe-1 ("AAE-1"), Asia-America Gateway Cable System ("AAG"), Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 ("APCN-2"), Asia Pacific Gateway (“APG”), Asia Submarine-Cable Express ("ASE"), EAC-C2C, FLAG Europe Asia ("FEA"), FLAG North Asia Loop ("FNAL") / REACH North Asia Loop ("RNAL"), Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE), Sea-Me-We 3 ("SMW3"), South-East Asia Japan Cable System ("SJC") and TGN-Intra Asia Cable System ("TGN-IA"). Several other systems are under construction or planning.

Cables with Intra-Asia connectivity:

• Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 ("APCN-2"),
• FLAG North Asia Loop ("FNAL") / REACH North Asia Loop ("RNAL"),
• EAC-C2C,
• TGN-Intra Asia Cable System ("TGN-IA") 
• Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE, 2013), 
• South-East Asia Japan Cable System (SJC, 2013)
• Asia Pacific Gateway (APG,2016)
• Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE, 2021)
• Asia Direct Cable (ADC, 2023)
• Southeast Asia–Japan 2 (SJC2, 2024)
• South-East Asia Hainan-Hongkong Express Cable System (SEA-H2X, 2024)
• Asia Link Cable (ALC, 2025) 

Cables connecting Europe, Africa and EMEA regions:

• FLAG Europe Asia ("FEA"),
• Sea-Me-We 3 ("SMW3"),
• Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1，2017)，

Cables connecting the United States:

• Asia-America Gateway (AAG, 2009),
• Pacific Light Cable Network(PLCN, withdrawn application for license in the US),
• Hong Kong - America(HKA, withdrawn application for license in the US), 
• Hong Kong - Guam (HK-G, withdrawn application for license in the US), 
• Bay to Bay Express (BtoBE, withdrawn application for license in the US).

Cables connecting Australia:

• H2 Cable (planning)

There are 10 submarine cable landing stations (CLS) in Hong Kong, including three cable landing stations Tseung Kwan O, three at Chung Hom Kok, two at Tong Fuk, and one at each of Deep Water Bay and Cape D'Aguilar.

Cable Landing Stations in Hong Kong

Due to the geography of Hong Kong, the submarine cables are landed in Hong Kong from international waters via the southeast direction. This has restricted the choice of landing sites for submarine cables even though Hong Kong has a long coastline. Currently, there are three major areas for landing of submarine cables with cable landing stations at: (1) Tong Fuk in the southern part of Lantau Island; (2) Deep Water Bay, Cape D’Aguilar and Chung Hom Kok in the southern part of the Hong Kong Island; and (3) Tseung Kwan O in the eastern part of the New Territories.

As most of the old generation submarine cables are landed at Tong Fuk and Deep Water Bay, there are advantages in having additional cables landed in new pieces of land elsewhere.

TKO (Tseung Kwan O) takes the advantages of accommodating many leading data centers in Hong Kong, such as HKEx, Global Switch, MEGA Plus, Hong Kong Financial Data Center, data centers and cable landing stations owned and operated by China Mobile International, China Unicom Global, NTT, Telstra, etc. But the narrow undersea corridor makes it hard to land more cables into TKO.

Chung Hom Kok is attractive for new cables and new cable landing stations, taking advantages of its wider undersea corridor and location in the Hong Kong Island. SUNeVision Holdings Ltd. (SUNeVision), the number one data center provider and connectivity hub in Hong Kong, has built two carrier-neutral cable landing stations at Chung Hom Kom since 2020, in the immediate vicinity of the existing GB21 Chung Hom Kok CLS.