Candle is a 8,000 km submarine cable system connecting Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The Candle cable system consists of 24 fiber pairs, with a total system capacity of 570 Tbps.

The Candle consortium comprises Meta, Softbank, Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), IPS Inc. and PT XLSmart Telecom Sejahtera Tbk (formerly XL Axiata). NEC Corporation has been contracted as the system supplier. 

Among the Candle consortium, IPS is a new player in international subsea cable consortia.

IPS is a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company (TSE: 4390). As a member of the Candle consortium, IPS will build a new international Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Wakayama Prefecture, near Osaka, and develop an associated Candle branch connecting the Wakayama CLS.

InfiniVAN, Inc., a fully-licensed Philippine telecommunications company and a subsidiary of IPS, has announced the signing of agreement with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to jointly develop a high-quality, secure government network infrastructure across the Philippines, including new cable landing stations for the Candle cable system and other systems.

InfiniVAN has released its role as Candle's landing party in Baler, Aurora province on the East coast of the Philippines. The Baler cable landing station (CLS) broke ground on August 6, 2025. Designed to accommodate up to 4 submarine cable systems, the Baler CLS is already being considered by two other systems that may land ahead of Candle. 

PT XLSmart Telecom Sejahtera Tbk (XLSmart), formerly PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk and PT XL Axiata Tbk, is an Indonesian mobile telecommunications services operator headquartered in Jakarta, jointly owned by Malaysia-based company Axiata and Indonesian diversified conglomerate Sinar Mas. It is the third largest mobile telecommunications company in Indonesia. In December 2024, XL Axiata announced that it will merge with Smartfren (owned by Sinar Mas). XL Axiata operates as the surviving entity and changes its name to XLSmart under the new company name of PT XLSmart Telecom Sejahtera. 

The construction of the Candle cable system will contribute to infrastructure expansion and secure redundant routes to meet the increasing demand for data communications driven by 5G and generative AI.

The Candle cable system scheduled to begin operations in 2028.

Similar as another newly announced AUG East subsea cable system, the Candle cable route runs through the South China Sea but avoids to touch the 9-dash line claimed by China.