FCC Grants Submarine Cable Landing Licenses for JGA North and JGA South

According to the FCC Public Notice, the FCC granted submairne cable landing licenses for the JGA North and the JGA South on July 14. RTI and NEC announced the successful completion of the JGA North cable system on July 6, while the JGA South cable system has been in-service temporarily since March. The FCC also granted submarine cable landing licenses for Jupiter, Southern Cross Next in July.

According to RTI, Equinix termination points for JGA North and JGA South have been live with the following two cable routes:

• Japan-Guam-Australia South Cable System (JGA South) connecting Sydney and Guam with termination into Equinix SY4 IBX in Sydney and with a branch to Australia’s Sunshine Coast.

• Japan-Guam-Australia North Cable System (JGA North) connecting Tokyo and Guam with termination into Equinix TY2 IBX in Tokyo.

RTI also extends JGA North to AT TOKYO CC1 data center. JGA North lands at NTT's Minami-Boso Cable Landing Station, a newly built CLS for JGA North and Jupiter.

The JGA North cable system is a private cable wholy owned by RTI and its subsidiaries. The licensees of the submairne cable landing licenses for the JGA North cable system include (1) RTI Solutions, Inc. (RTI Solutions), a California company, (2) RTI JGA Pte. Ltd. (RTI JGA), a Singapore company, and (3) RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd., a Singapore company.

JGA North consists of a single Guam to Japan segment with a total length of approximately 2,600 kilometers. The JGA North cable system has two fiber pairs, with a design capacity of a minimum of 12 Tbps per fiber pair and an initial lit capacity of 24 Tbps.

The JGA South cable system is a concortium cable. The licensees of the submairne cable landing licenses for the JGA South cable system are:

• (1) GU Holdings Inc. (GU Holdings), a Delaware company and an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Google LLC (Google).
• (2) AARNet Pty Ltd, an Australian not-for-profit company and licensed telecommunication carrier in Australia, owns and operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNET).
• (3) RTI JGA Pte. Ltd. (RTI JGA), a Singapore company, and
• (4) RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. (RTI Connectivity), a Singapore company

JGA South consists of a segment that connects Piti, Guam to Sydney, Australia (Main Trunk) and a branching unit that extends the system from Sydney, Australia to a location on the Australian Sunshine Coast (Sunshine Coast Branch). The Main Trunk and Sunshine Coast Branch, with approximate lengths of 7,081 and 552 kilometers, respectively, each with two fiber pairs and a design capacity of a minimum of 18 Tbps per fiber pair.

In July, the FCC granted 4 submarine cable landing licenses, respectively for Jupiter, Southern Cross Next, JGA North and JGA South.

The cable landing license for HK-G owned by RTI and Google is still pending, as well as the licenses for PLCN, HKA, and BtoBE.