Chinese Carriers Launch First Cable Across the Taiwan Strait — TSE-1

China Unicom leads several Chinese carriers launching today the Taiwan Strait Express 1 (TSE-1) submarine cable, the first communication cable directly connecting Taiwan Island and Mainland China, linking Tanshui and Fuzhou across the Taiwan Strait with a 270 km cable. China Mobile, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile (TFN), and Far EasTone Telecommunications (NCIC), and Taiwan International Gateway(TIGC) are the other members of the TSE-1 consortium. China Telecom has not confirmed to invest in the TSE-1 cable yet.

The TSE-1 cable consists of 8 fiber pairs, with about 207 km subsea cable between Changle in Fuzhou city and Tanshui in Taiwan, with a design capacity of 6.4 Tbps. The C&MA for the TSE-1 cable was signed in January 2010, the marine installation was started on November 16, 2012, and all the project works completed on January 16, 2013.

Technically, the TSE-1 cable enables the shortest route between Taiwan and Mainland China. On the other hand, the TSE-1 cable route avoids the seismic zone along the east and south coast of Taiwan island. The TSE-1 cable can be interconnected with EAC-C2C network at the Tanshui CLS of NCIC and TPE and APCN-2 at the Tanshui CLS of Chonghwa Telecom.

Moreover, the significanc of the TSE-1 cable system is far beyond its network importance.  The TSE-1 cable system is the first communication cable system directly connecting Taiwan Island and Mainland China, setting up a milestone for the truely Three Direct Links , i.e., direct postal and communication, direct transportation and direct trade between Taiwan and Mainland China.