The AC-1 (Atlantic Crossing 1) is a 14,000 km trans-Atlantic submarine cable system linking the USA and three European countries, the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany.

Global Crossing announced to build the AC-1 submarine cable project in 1997. And the AC-1 cable system was ready for service in 1999.

The AC-1 cable system comprises four fiber self-healing Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) ring network connecting the United States with the United Kingdom and Germany, with an initial design system capacity of 40Gbps (8*2.5G DWDM, 2 fiber pairs).

The AC-1 cable lands at the following cable landing stations:

• Brookhaven Cable Landing Station, the United States,
• Whitesands Bay Cable Landing Station, the United Kingdom
• Deutsche Telekom's Sylt Cable Landing Station, Germany
• KPN's Beverwijk Cable Landing Station, Netherlands

The AC-1 cable system was privately owned by Global Crossing. Following the acquisition of Global Crossing by Level3 in 2011 and the acquisition of Level3 by CenturyLink in 2017, the AC-1 is now wholly owned by CenturyLink, as well as AC-2/Yellow, Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC), Pan-America Crossing (PAC), South America Crossing (PAC), etc.  

The Yellow cable system (also known as Atlantic Crossing 2,  AC-2) is a 6,400 km trans-Atlantic submarine cable system linking the USA and the UK.

The AC-2 was put into service in September 2000, with an initial design capacity of 320 Gbps on 4 fiber pairs.

In May 1999, Level3 decided to lay the Yellow transatlantic cable system, with 4 fiber pairs.  At that time, demand was heavily outstripping supply. Other cables in place at the time included AC1, TAT 12/13. The construction and maintenance agreement for TAT14 had been signed, but the RFS date was not scheduled until late 2000. In 1999, long term indefeasible rights of use (IRU) for STM1/OC3 was priced at approximately $3 million and above. Coupled with this, the cost of ongoing operations and maintenance was in the region of $150,000 per year per STM1/OC3. The initial cost was relatively high for a single company, therefore the decision was taken to defray the large upfront project cost by entering into a strategic partnership. 

Level3 signed a coconstruction agreement with Global Crossing which took two out of the four fiber pairs on the Yellow cable system. Operating in this environment meant Level 3 already recouped half the cost for Yellow before construction even began. Global Crossing marketed their two fiber pairs of the Yellow cable system as Atlantic Crossing 2, or AC-2. Global Crossing's private Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1) cable system was ready for service in 1999.

Level3 owned two fiber pairs and signed an IRU agreement on a fiber pair with Viatel. In this way, Level3 recovered approximately 70% of capital costs on the Yellow cable system before the system even entered service.

The AC-2/Yellow cable lands at Level3's cable landing station at Bellport, Long Island, NY, and Global Crossing's cable landing station at Bude, the UK.

After the acquisition of Global Crossing by Level3 and the followed acquistion of Level3 by Century Link, AC-1 and AC-2/Yellow are now wholly owned by Century Link.

COLUMBUS III is a 9,900 km transatlantic submarine cable linking the US, Portugal, Spain and Italy. COLUMBUS III was ready for service in December 1999, with 2 fiber pairs and a design capacity of 20 Gbps.

The Columbus III consortium comprises:

• AT&T,
• Verizon,
• Telxius,
• Portugal Telecom,
• Tata Communications,
• Telecom Italia Sparkle,
• Telkom South Africa,
• Telecom Argentina,
• Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad,
• Embratel,
• Cyta,
• CANTV,
• Ukrtelecom

The Columbus III cable lands at:

• T1: Hollywood, FL, United States
• T2: Ponta Delgada, Azores Island, Portugal
• T3: Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
• T4: Conil, Spain
• T5: Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, Italy

The COLUMBUS-III cable system consists of five segments, S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5, with two optical fiber pairs per segment, initially designed to operate at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength per fiber pair in a trunk and branch structure configured as a collapsed ring. COLUMBUS-III was initially be configured with two wavelengths, designed to support up to eight wavelengths per fiber pair. The capacity of each fiber pair comprises thirty-two Basic System Modules (BSM), with each BSM containing 63 Minimum Investment Units (MIUs). Each fiber pair was equipped at the outset with a capacity of 1008 MIUs.

The COLUMBUS-III cable system also has four other terminal segments: Segment A, B, C and D, as shown in the figure below: 

In 2009, the Columbus III consortium selected Xtera to upgrade the system capacity to 160 Gbps, with Xtera’s advanced 20 Gbps Differential Phase Shift Key (DPSK) Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE).

The FA-1 (FLAG Atlantic 1) is a 14500 transatlantic submarine cable system linking the US, the UK and France. The FA-1 was ready for service in June 2001.

The FA-1 cable system is privately owned and operated by Global Cloud Xchange (formerly FLAG Telecom).

The FA-1 cable system consists of FA-1 North between the US and the UK, and FA-1 South between the US and France  with following landing stations:  

• Northport, New York, the US
• Island Park, New York, the US
• Skckewja, Cornwall, United Kingdom
• Plerin, Brittany, France

The FA-1 cable system has six fiber pairs on both FA-1 North and FA-1 South, with initial design capacity of 4.8 Tbps (2x2.4Tbps), based on 10Gbps DWDM technology.

The FA-1 cable system was supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), for a total cost of about US$1.1 billion, inclusive of cost on the terrestrial network connecting cable landing stations in the US and Europe.

In 2013, the FA-1 cable system was upgraded with 100Gbps DWDM technology, using Ciena’s GeoMesh solution.

EXA Atlantic (formerly GTT Atlantic, Hibernia Atlantic) is a 12,200 km private transatlantic submarine cable system in the North Atlantic Ocean, connecting Canada, the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The EXA Altlantic consists of EXA South and EXA North cables.

Hibernia Atlantic Submarine Cable System was ready for service on April 8, 2001, with a design capacity of 10.16 Tbps.

The Hibernia Atlantic Submarine Cable System was originally developed and owned by Hibernia Atlantic U.S. LLC (also konwn as Hibernia Networks), which held both domestic and international Section 214 authority (FCC 214 License) and a submarine cable landing license in the US. In 2017, GTT acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares, and therefore the control, of Hibernia NGS Limited and each of its subsidiaries. Hibernia Atlantic U.S. LLC is one of the subsidiaries soly owned by Hibernia NGS Limited.

In January 2017, GTT completed the acquisition of Hibernia Networks for $USD607 million (initial price was $590 million) , which includes Hibernia Express, Hibernia Atlantic and other assets.

In September 2021, I Squared Capital, an infrastructure private equity firm, acquired GTT's Communications’ infrastructure division for an initial $1.74bn in cash, and renamed the newly independent operating company EXA Infrastructure. The GTT Atlantic and GTT Express, as part of assets covered by the acquisition, are now renamed as EXA Atlantic (EXA South and EXA North) and EXA Express. 

EXA Express (formerly GTT Express, Hibernia Express) is a 4,600 km and 6-pair Trans-Atlantic submarine cable system linking Canada and the United Kingdom. Project Express is built with the state-of-the-art submarine network technology, specifically designed for the financial community stretching from North America to Europe. EXA Express offers the lowest latency route from New York to London with 58.55ms round trip delay.

Hibernia Express initially designed with 100 Gbps transmission capacity using TE SubCom’s C100 SLTE platform. It is a 6-fiber-pair submarine cable, with a portion of the fibers optimized for lowest latency and a portion optimized for 100x100 Gbps design capacity. The total cross-sectional design capacity of the Express cable is over 53 Tbps.

Hibernia Express was ready for service on September 15, 2015.

Hibernia Express was privately-owned by Hibernia Atlantic, and form a part of Hibernia Atlantic's Global Financial Network which is specifically designed to meet the demanding performance and reliability requirements of the financial community.

In Jan. 2017, GTT completed the acquisition of Hibernia Networks which includes five subsea cables, including Hibernia Express, the lowest latency transatlantic cable system, eight cable landing stations, etc.

In September 2021, I Squared Capital, an infrastructure private equity firm, acquired GTT's Communications’ infrastructure division for an initial $1.74bn in cash, and renamed the newly independent operating company EXA Infrastructure. The GTT Express, as part of assets covered by the acquisition, is now renamed as EXA Express. So does GTT Atlantic to EXA Atlantic, comprising EXA South and EXA North.

The TAT-14 is a 15,428 km transatlantic submarine cable system, connecting the United States to the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. The TAT-14 cable system was ready for service on March 21, 2001, and retired on December 15, 2020.

The TAT-14 consortium comprises 11 carriers, namely, AT&T, BT, C&W, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KPN, MCII, PGE, Sprint, Swisscom and Telia.

The TAT-14 cable lands at:

• Manasquan, NJ, USA,
• Tuckerton, NJ, USA,
• Widemouth, the United Kingdom,
• St Valery-en-Caux, France,
• Katwijk,  the Netherlands,
• Norden, Germany, and
• Blaabjerg, Denmark

The TAT-14 cable system consists of four fiber pairs, each initially operating with 40 x 10 Gbps DWDM.

Designed with a partial SDH ring protection network structure, the TAT-14 cable system has a initial system capacity of 1.87Tbs calculated as: 
Southern route: 41 x 10Gbs channels + 640 Gbs SDH capacity 
Northern route: 18 x 10Gbs channels + 640 Gbs SDH capacity 
Total = 1.87 Tbs

Now, TAT-14 has a total design capacity of 9.38Tbps upon upgrade with new technology.

In September 1998, KDD Submarine Cable Systems Inc.(KDD-SCS) was awarded the Supply Contract f as the sole supplier for the TAT-14 Cable Network. The Contract Value was approximately US$1.2 billion (Approximately 170 billion yen). KDD-SCS' subcontractors for the TAT-14 cable project included Mitsubishi Electric Corp., TOSHIBA CORP., Ocean Cable Co., Ltd, etc. At that time, KDD-SCS won contracts for large-scale cable systems in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, including PC-1, JAPAN-US Cable Network, and TAT-14 Cable Network, with a total contract value of approximately 300 billion yen. As a result, KDD-SCS toasted to be the top of the world, superseding its antecessors, ALCATEL Submarine Networks (France) and TYCO Submarine Systems (U.S.A.), in terms of contract amount as well as technology.

In May 2011, Mitsubishi Electric signed a contract to upgrade the TAT-14 Cable Network with 40Gbps DWDM technology. 

On December 15, 2020, the TAT-14 consortium decommissioned the TAT-14 cable system, making its lifetime of 19 years and 9 months. The TAT-14 is the first trans-atlantic cable to be decommissioned since the Gemini cable in 2003.

In April 2021, Subsea Environmental Services and Red Penguin Associates (advisors) were awarded the contract to decommission the TAT-14 telecommunications cable system, to remove and recycle of shore-ends in the US, UK, France, Denmark and the Netherlands as well as the deep-water segments in the North Atlantic.

TGN-Atlantic is a 13,000 km transatlantic submarine cable system linking the United States and the United Kingdom. TGN-Atlantic was ready for service in June 2001.

The TGN-Atlantic cable system is now privately owned and operated by Tata Communications.

The TGN-Atlantic cable system was originally invested and built by Tyco International, as part of its Tyco Global Network. In 2000, Tyco International announced to design, build, operate and maintain its own global undersea network, the Tyco Global Network (TGN), including TGN-Atlantic, TGN-Pacific, and TGN Europe-Asia, etc.

In 2005, Indian VSNL acquired Tyco Global Network (TGN) for $130 million.  In 2008, VSNL was rebranded as Tata Communications.

The TGN-Atlantic cable system consists of two separate cables routed slightly differently, but both cables landing at the same cable landing stations in the US and the UK:

• Wall Township, New Jersey, the United States
• Highbridge, Somerset, the United Kingdom

Each of the TGN-Atlantic cables has 4 fibre pairs, initially designed with 64x10Gbps DWDM technology, for a total system capacity of 5.12 Tbps.

The TGN-Atlantic cable system was upgraded to 40Gbps and 100G DWDM technology with Ciena's solutions, respectively in 2011 and 2013.

America Europe Connect (AEConnect, AEC-1), formerly called Emerald Express, is a private trans-Atlantic undersea cable system owned by Aqua Comms (formerly Emerald Networks), connecting Shirley, NY and Killala on the West Coast of Ireland, spanning more than 5,200 km with stubbed branching units for future landings, using CeltixConnect, an Irish Sea subsea cable wholly owned by AquaComms, to provide extended connectivity to London and greater Europe.

Featuring the latest technology of 130 Gbps x 100 Gbps per fibre pair in a total of 4 fiber pairs, AEC-1 provides low latency connectivity across the Atlantic, with 67.83ms between Equinix NY5 – Equinix LD6.

The AEC-1 cable lands at AT&T's Shirley Cable Landing Station, at 1 Coraci, Shirley, Long Island, New York. Aqua Comms houses the SLTEs of the AEC-1 cable system at 1025Connect, the premier network-neutral carrier hotel at Long Island.

AEConect has been ready for for service since Jan 2016.

Aqua Comms incorporates people and plans from the former Emerald Express/Emerald Networks project. Aqua Comms is the parent of Sea Fibre Networks, which built CeltixConnect.

In early 2018, Aqua Comms announced the investment in HAVFRUE cable system and branded as America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), the AEConnect is rebranded as America Europe Connect -1 (AEC-1).

MAREA is a new 6,644 km submarine cable system across the Atlantic, connecting the United States to southern Europe, landing at Virginia Beach in the US and Bilbao in Spain. MAREA cable system has been in-service since April 2018.

Marea means “tide” in Spanish.  Marea cable system is the first subsea cable connecting Virginia and Spain.

Facebook and Microsoft jointly designed MAREA as the first Open Cable System in the world. Telxius joined in later as the thrid party of MAREA consortium, operates and manages the MAREA cable system. TE SubCom is the turn key suppier for MAREA cable system.

According to FCC documents, Facebook owns two fiber pairs on MAREA, Microsoft owns two fiber pairs on MAREA, Telxius owns the remaining 4 fiber pairs. And AWS has acquired from Telxius a fiber pair on MAREA cable system on IRU basis.

In the US, the MAREA cable lands at Telxius' Virginia Beach Cable Landing Station (CLS) at 1900 Corporate Landing Parkway in Virginia Beach, where hosts Telxius' BRUSA cable and Google's Dunant cable as well. Microsoft is the landing party in the US.

In Spain, the MAREA cable lands at Telxius' Bilbao Cable Landing Station. Telxius is the landing party in Spain. Within a few kilometers from the MAREA cable landing station in Bilbao, Telxius operates the carrier neutral Derio Communications Hub, which is specially designed to channel all the MAREA capacity and connect it to the main communication nodes in Europe. 

MAREA was initially designed with eight fiber pairs and 160Tbps of system capacity, specifically optimized for maximum capacity per fiber pair. It utilizes a large-area, low-loss optical fiber type based on a pure silica core and has excellent performance. The MEREA cable system also has shorter amplifier spacing of 56 km (comparing with the normal amplifier spacing of about 70km in other cable systems designed with 100Gbps DWDM technology), allowing an excellent optical signal-to-noise ratio.

After its ready for service, there have been trials on the MAREA cable system with 400G DWDM technology supplied by both Infinera and Acacia, which demonstrated the OPEN Cable design and the transmission capacity of 26.2Tbps per fiber pair and system capacity of 200Tbps.

The latest trial with Infinera's ICE6 optical engine in the end of 2020 demonstrated an industry record on error-free transmission of 30 Tbps of total capacity on a single fiber pair and 700 Gbps data rate per wavelength over the 6640km cable, and commercially deployable results with 28 Tbps of total capacity on a single fiber pair and up to 650 Gbps data rate per wavelength.

The HAVFRUE subsea cable is the first new undersea cable traversing the North Atlantic to connect mainland Northern Europe to the U.S. in nearly two decades, spanning 7851km, with a system capacity of 108Tbps and a trunk cable connecting New Jersey, USA to the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark and branches to Ireland and Norway:

• Main Trunk: Wall, New Jersey (NJFX) and Blaabjerg, Denmark, six fiber pairs.
• Ireland Branch:  to Old Head Beach, Leckanvy, Ireland, six fiber pairs.
• Norway Branch: to Kristiansand, Norway, two fiber pairs.

Havfrue means “mermaid” in Danish. 

The HAVFRUE consortium including Aqua Comms, Bulk Infrastructure, Facebook and Google. TE SubCom supplies the Havfrue cable system.

Facebook and Aqua Comms each owns two fiber pairs on the Main Trunk. Google and Bulk Infrastructure each owns one fiber pair on the Main Truch.

Facebook and Aqua Comms owns two fiber pairs and four fiber pairs on the Ireland Branch respectively. Bulk Infrastructure owns all the two fiber pairs on the Norway Branch.

Aqua Comms is the appointed system operator and landing party in the U.S., Ireland, and Denmark.  Aqua Comms will market and sell capacity services and raw spectrum on its portion of the HAVFRUE cable system under the brand name America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2) as complementary to its existing transatlantic cable, America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1).

The HAVFRUE/AEC-2 cable system was ready for service on December 1st, 2020.

EllaLink is a submarine cable connecting Brazil and Europe, linking the major hubs of Sao Paulo and Fortaleza with Lisbon and Madrid. The main section of the EllaLink cable traveling from Sines to Fortaleza is approximately 5900 km.

The EllaLink cable system delivers 100Tbps of capacity over 4 fibre pairs, up to 25Tbps per fibre pair capacity direct from Europe to Latin America.

The EllaLink cable system is supplied by ASN, with financial supports including but not limited to 

• a €25 million ($27.2m) financial support by the European Commission as part of its Building Europe Link to Latin America (BELLA) initiative.
• a €9.57 million grant by the EU Commission for development of submarine cable connecting Mauritania to Portugal and Europe, as part of the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) programme
• a €13.69 million grant by the EU Commission for building the future Canary Islands submarine cable connection, as part of the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) programme

EllaLink was a partnership between Spanish submarine cable operator IslaLink and Brazilian state-owned telecoms provider Telebras. By the end of 2019, Telebras had withdrawn from the EllaLink cable project.

EllaLink collaborates with Telxius to land the cable at Telxius' Fortaleza Cable Landing Station. 

Ellalink creates a new landing site and an innovation & data center hub in Sines – Sines Tech.

The EllaLink cable system offers less than 60ms round trip delay (RTD) to cross the Atlantic connecting Portugal to Brazil, and less than 120ms RTD between Marseille and São Paulo.

The EllaLink cable system has been ready for service as of June 1, 2021.

The EllaLink Cape Verde Branch went live on June 6, 2022, with capacity up to 30Tbps.

The Dunant submarine cable system is a 6,600km submarine cable connecting Virginia Beach in the United States to the French Atlantic coast.

The Dunant cable system is the first ever in-service undersea cable featuring a 12 fiber-pair Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) design, with a total design capacity of 25 Tbps per fiber pair, to deliver record-breaking capacity of 300 Tbps across the Atlantic.

Named in honor of Henry Dunant, a Swiss businessman, social activist, first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and founder of the Red Cross, the Dunant cable system honors his memory and commitment to humanitarian ideals. 

The Dunant cable system is the second private submairne cable built by Google, following its first private and non-telecom submarine cable Curie, connecting Chile to Los Angeles.

In France, the Dunant cable lands at Orange's La Parée Préneau cable landing station in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez. Google France has contracted with Orange to be the landing party in France. A landing party agreement governs the relationship between Google France and Orange.  Google France conveys to Orange ownership of the portion of the Dunant cable system that extends 12 nautical miles from the shores of France. Orange grants Google France an IRU for the same portion of the Dunant cable system. Further, Orange receives an IRU for two fiber pairs for the entire length of the Dunant cable system. 

In the US, Google is the landing party and lands the Dunant cable at Telxius' Virginia Beach Cable Landing Station. Google maintains control of the Dunant cable system in U.S. territory and international waters.

Google selects TE SubCom to design and deploy the Dunant cable system.

The US FCC has granted cable landing license for the Dunant cable system as of March 13, 2020.

The Dunant cable system has been ready for service as of January 19, 2021.

WASACE 1 is the next-generation fiber-optic technology between Europe to Latin America, connects Fortaleza, the Canary Islands and Seixal with additional branches in Cape Verde, Madeira and Casablanca. 

WASACE 1 submarine cable system will provide 8 fiber pairs for a total capacity of 144 Tbps, each pair with an upgradeable initial capacity of 18 Tbps.

The project is expected to be completed in no more than 30 months, being Q2 2021 the projected Ready for Service (RFS) date for system WASACE 1.

WASACE 1  is invested by Hemisphere Cable Company and supplied by NEC.

The Grace Hopper Cable System is a new private subsea cable system invested by Google, following its Curie, Dunant and Equiano.

The Grace Hopper cable connects the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain, with 6,250 km from New York to the Cornish seaside resort town of Bude in the U.K. and 6300 km from New York to Bilbao in Spain. The Grace Hopper cable is one of the first new cables to connect the U.S. and the U.K. since 2003. and the first investment by Google in a private subsea cable route to the U.K. and the first-ever route to Spain. 

In the US, Google contracts with Lumen (formerly CenturyLink, Level3) as the landing partner to land Grace Hopper at the Bellport Cable Landing Station in New York. Lumen has no independent ability to affect the system’s operation.

In the UK, Google contracts with Lumen (formerly CenturyLink) as the landing partner to land Grace Hopper at the Bude Cable Landing Station in Cornwall. Lumen has no independent ability to affect the system’s operation.

In Spain, Google contracts with Telxius as the landing party to land Grace Hopper at the Sopelana Cable Landing Station in Bilbao and colocation at the Derio Communications Hub near Bilbao, which tightly integrates the Google Cloud region in Madrid. Pursuant to a landing party agreement, Telxius owns the portion of the Grace Hopper cable system that extends 12 nautical miles from the shores of Spain, and grants Google an IRU for the same portion of the system.

Google and its affiliates maintains ownership and control of the Grace Hopper cable system in US territory, UK territory and international waters.

The Grace Hopper cable consists of 16 fiber pairs (32 fibers), with 22Tbps per fiber pair and a total of 352Tbps system capacity, a significant upgrade to the internet infrastructure connecting the U.S. with Europe.

SumCom is the supplier and turn-key contractor for the Grace Hopper cable. 

The Grace Hopper cable project was completed and ready for service in September 2021.

The cable is named for computer science pioneer Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906–1992), best known for her work on one of the first linkers (compilers), which was critical in the development of the COBOL programming language. She’s also credited with famously finding an actual “bug” in a program; her team tracked down the source of a short circuit on the early Harvard Mark II computer to a moth trapped in a panel. It is to honor Grace Hopper’s legacy of innovation by investing in the future of transatlantic communications with a state-of-the-art fiber optic cable.

For more about Google's investment in subsea cable, please visit the Complete List of Google's Subsea Cable Investments.

The Amitié cable system is a 6,783 km (4,215 miles) trans-Atlantic submarine cable connecting Massachusetts in the U.S., Le Porge in France, and Bude in the United Kingdom.

The Amitié consortium comprises Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Aqua Comms, Vodafone (through Cable & Wireless Americas Systems, Inc.). Aqua Comms rebrands its ownership on the Amitié cable system as AEC-3.

The Amitié cable system lands at:

• Lynn Cable Landing Station, Massachusetts, USA
• Bude Cable Landing Station, the United Kingdom
• Le Porge Cable Landing Station, France

Meta, through its subsidiary Edge USA, is the landing party for the Lynn landing. Meta contracts with GTT (now EXA Infrastructure), the owner of the Lynn Cable Landing Station for the landing facilites. Meta has more than 80% of majority ownership on the Amitié cable system. 

Vodafone, through its indirect subsidiary Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited, is the landing party for the Bude landing.

Orange is the landing party for the Le Porge landing. Orange owns the portion of the Amitié cable system extending 12 nautical miles from the French shore, and grants to the Amitié consortium all their affiliates dark fiber IRUs on that portion of the Amitié cable system. Orange doesn't have any ownership on the Amitié cable system outside the French territory. According to a partnership agreement, Orange acquires two fiber pairs on the Amitié cable system on IRU basis.

The Amitié cable system has a trans-Atlantic system capacity of more than 320Tbps, consists of three segments:

• Segment 1.1 connects Lynn CLS with a branching unit BU1, with 16 fiber pairs, each having a design capacity of 20.1Tbps using current technology, and a length of 5,276 kilometers.
• Segment 1.2 connects Bude CLS in the United Kingdom to the BU1, with 12 fiber pairs, each having a design capacity of 20.1Tbps using current technology, and a length of 645 kilometers.
• Segment 1.3 connects Le Porge CLS in France to the BU1, with 12 fiber pairs, each having a design capacity of 20.1Tbps using current technology, and a length of 871 kilometers.

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) is the turn-key supplier for the Amitié cable project.

The Amitié cable system has been ready for service as of July 16, 2023.

The Leif Erikson cable system is a 4,200km subsea cable creating a direct link between southern Norway and Atlantic-Canada connecting into Goose Bay, including plans to extend cable terrestrially back to Montreal.

The Leif Erikson cable system is developing by Bulk Infrastructure and its partners.

The Leif Erikson cable system will be the first trans-Atlantic cable powered with 100% renewable energy in line with Bulk’s vision to bring sustainable infrastructure to a global audience.

The Anjana cable system is a 7121 km transatlantic fiber-optic submarine cable connecting Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Santander, Spain.

The Anjana cable system is privately owned and operated by Meta, through multiple subsidiaries including Edge USA, Edge Network Services Limited (Edge), and Edge Network Infrastructure Services Spain, S.L.U. (Edge Spain).

The Anjana cable system consists a sole segment connecting Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Santander, Spain, with 24 fiber pairs, each with a design capacity of approximately 20 Tbps using current technology.

The Myrtle Beach Cable Landing Station is owned by DC Blox, Inc., while the Santander Cable Landing Station is owned by Telxius Cable España, S.L.U.. Edge USA and Edge Spain control the cable landing stations respectively. 

Meta will operate the Anjana cable system on a non-common-carrier basis by using the system for its own internal capacity needs and, potentially, by providing dark fiber to wholesale and enterprise customers.

The Anjana cable system is supplied by NEC.

The Anjana cable system is expected to be ready-for-service in the fourth quarter of 2024.

C2C

The Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN-2) is a 19,000-km submarine cable system linking Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore in a ring configuration, with four fiber-pairs connecting 10 submarine cable landing stations in Asia region, ready for service on December 20, 2001.

The APCN-2 is the first submarine cable system that has a self-healing function in the Asia region, and is capable of restoring itself instantly with its ring configuration when a failure occurs in a part of the system.

The APCN-2 has an initial design capacity of 2.56 Tbps by operating with 64x10 Gbps DWDM technology and four fiber-pairs ring.

The total initial investment of APCN-2 project is more than US$ 1 billion, including US$800 million supply contract awarded to NEC Corporation.

In 2010, the APCN-2 cable system was upgraded with 40Gbps DWDM technology. And it was further upgraded with 100Gbps DWDM technology in 2014. 

For further information, please refer to articles about APCN-2 Consortium and APCN-2 cable network.

The EAC-C2C Network is a merger of the EAC network and the C2C network, Asia’s largest privately-owned submarine cable network, with a design capacity of 17.92 Tbps to 30.72 Tbps, a total cable length of 36,800 km, and 17 cable landing stations covering Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore. 

The East Asia Crossing (EAC) cable system spans 19,800 km, linking Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore. The EAC network was initially constructed by Asia Global Crossing which was acquired by China Netcom in 2002. And then China Netcom sold out Asia Netcom (including the EAC network assets) to an investor group led by Ashmore and Spinnaker in 2006.

The City-to-City (C2C) cable system stretches 17,000, linking Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore. The C2C network was initially constructed by SingTel in 2000-2002.

In 2007, Asia Netcom (now Pacnet) took over the control of C2C and merged the EAC and C2C networks into an integrated EAC-C2C Network.

In 2008, Pacnet Internet and Asia Netcom merged to form new Pacnet.

In April 2015, Telstra completed the acquisition of Pacnet. EAC-C2C network is now wholy owned by Telstra. 

For more description on EAC and C2C cable systems, please visit EAC cable system overview and C2C cable system overview.

The Flag North Asian Loop(FNAL) or Reach North Asian Loop (/RNAL) each represents a part of a 9,800 km Intra-Asia submarine cable system, the North Asian Loop submarine cable system linking Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong in a ring configuration.

The entire FNAL/RNAL submarine cable system consists of 6 fiber pairs, initially designed with 64x10 Gbps DWDM technology. Reliance Globalcom (FLAG Telecom) and PCCW Global (Reach) each owns three of the six fiber pairs respectively.

The North Asian Loop cable system was jointly built by FLAG Telecom and Level 3 Communication.

Level 3 Communications built its eastern leg connecting Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan and put it into service in July 2001. In the end of 2001, Reach acquired the North Asian Loop and other assets from Level 3 Communications. In March 2011, PCCW Global announced the completion of Reach's joint-venture alignment to take over most part of Reach's assets including the RNAL.

FLAG Telecom built the western leg connecting Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. And Reliance acquired FLAG Telecom in 2003.

In August 2011, Reliance Globalcom successfully upgraded it FNAL to 40G submarine network, to introduce 10G LAN PHY and OTN services in the FNAL submarine cable network. 

PCCW Global announced in January 2012 to upgrade the RNAL with 100G network solutions.

For more information about the FNAL/RNAL cable system, please click here

RNAL

TGN-Intra Asia Cable System (TGN-IA) is a private Intra-Asia submarine cable system constructed, owned and operated by Tata Communications. The TGN-IA cable spans 6800 km, consists of 4 fibre pairs linking Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Guam, with a design capacity of 3.84 Tbit/s. The TGN-IA cable route was deliberately designed to avoid areas prone to earthquakes and other hazardous areas, such as south and east coast of Taiwan Island. The TGN-IA cable system offers a low latency direct route between Tokyo and Singapore (63 ms). And the TGN-IA, the TIC and the TGN-Pacific together form an integrate submarine network to connect Asia and the United States.

Matrix Cable System (MCS) is a carrier neutral international fiber optic submarine cable that serves Singapore - Jakarta with high speed, high capacity and non-stop quality links. The MCS cable spans approximately 1055km from Singapore to Jakarta, with maximum design capacity of 2.56Tbps.  The MCS Offers PoP-to-PoP Connectivity between Singapore and Indonesia. The MCS was Ready for Provisional Acceptance (RFPA) on August 7, 2008.

The MCS cable system is privately owned and operate by PT NAP Info Lintas Nusa (Matrix, or Matrix NAP Info), a prominent telecommunication company based in Jakarta, Indonesia, founded in 2000. Matrix operates  Matrix Cable System (MCS), Matrix Cable Internet Exchange (MC-IX) Matrix Data Center, Matrix Cloud, Matrix Internet and Matrix Nap.

Matrix NAP Info network presents in several data center locations such as Biznet Midplaza Jakarta, Biznet Technovillage, Lintasarta Data Center, Telkomsigma Serpong & Sentul, Omadata Surabaya, DCI Indonesia located in Cibitung, Bekasi and EDGE Data Center located in Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta, etc.

Matrix NAP Info together with PT Communication Cable Systems Indonesia Tbk. (CCSI) is constructing a 3,400km Varuna Cable System (VCS) connecting Indonesia's islands, including Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Labuan Bajo, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Bawean and Madura island.

TIC (Tata Indicom Cable), also known as TIISCS (Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable System), is a submarine cable linking India and Singapore. The TIC cable spans 3,175 km, lands in  Chennai, India and Changi, Singapore. Construction of the cable TIC began in November 2003 and went on live on September 15, 2004. The TIC cable system comprises of 8 fiber pairs, operates with 64x10 Gbps DWDM technology, with a design capacity of 5.12 Tbps. The TIC cable system is 100% owned and operated by Tata Communications.

The MIC-1 (Moratelindo International Cable-system One) is a linear repeaterless optic fiber submarine cable system connecting Singapore and Batam Island, Indonesia. The MIC cable length is about 70km, lands at Changi Cable Landing Station and Batam Cable Landing Station.

The MIC1 cable system has been designed to have a minimum capacity of 10Gbits (STM-64) with the capability of accommodating Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM). The MIC cable system was ready for service in January 2008.

The MIC cable system is a private cable constructed, owned and operated by Moratelindo (PT Mora Telematika Indonesia), a wholesale telecom infrastructure providers established in 2000 in Indonesia.

Moratelindo, through its subsidiary Moratel (International) PTE Ltd, acquired Facilities-Based Operations (FBO) license in Singapore in September 2010 to deploy the inland backhaul cable within Singapore territory from landing point Changi to Global Switch.

The Korea-Japan Cable Network (KJCN) is a consortium cable with diverse direct connections between Korea and Japan.

The KJCN cable system consists of 12 fiber pairs on both cable routes, with a total cable length of 500km and an initial design capacity of 2.88 Tbps on each route.

There is no repeater and hence no PFE (Power Feeding Equipment) in the KJCN cable system.

The C&MA of the KJCN was signed on May 25, 2001, and the KJCN was ready for service on March 23, 2002, offering high quality, reliance broadband services for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan.

In March 2001, SingTel and Bharti Group formed a 50:50 private submarine cable development company, Network i2i, for the construction of the i2i cable network (i2icn) which was the world's largest cable network in terms of bandwidth capacity (8.4 Tbps) then.  The i2i submarine cable consists of 8 fiber pairs connecting Tuas cable landing station in Singapore and Chennai cable landing station in India, spans 3100 km. The entire i2i cable network utilises the latest Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology, with 105 wavelengths of 10 Gbps when fully equipped.  The i2i cable network was completed in April 2002. In January 2007, the i2i cable network became 100% owned by Bharti Airtel.

The South-East Asia Japan Cable System (SJC) is a 8900 km (to be extended to 9700 km later) submarine cable system connecting 7 Asian countries and regions including Brunei, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. The  SJC was ready for service on June 27, 2013.

The SJC cable consists of 6 fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 28 Tbps. The SJC cable system utilizes the state-of-the-art advanced 100G SLTE and OADM Branching technologies.  

The SJC cable system is supplied by NEC and TE SubCom, with a total cost of about US$400 million. 

For more details, please visit SJC cable system overview. 

The Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) is a 10400km submarine cable system linking 8 countries and regions in Asia region, i.e., Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, and Korea.

The APG cable system consists of 6 fiber pairs in the trunk, initially designed with 128*40 Gbps DWDM technology and system capacity of 30.72Tbps, upgradable to 100 Gbps wavelength. APG consortium announced the system capcity as 54.8Tbps based on different calculation.

When it was initiated in May 2009, the APG consortium included PLDT(the Philippines), Chunghwa Telecom(Taiwan), China Telecom and China Unicom (mainland China), KT Corp. (South Korea), NTT Communications (Japan), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia), and VNPT (Vietnam). PLDT and Telekom Malaysia were dropped off to participate in the ASE consortium.

APG, ASE  and SJC are three submarine cables on the Japan-Hong Kong-Singapore route. 

NTT Com, PLDT, StarHub and Telekom Malaysia comprise consortium members of the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE). While KDDI, SingTel, China Telecom, China Mobile, Globe Telecom and Google team up for the South-East Asia Japan Cable (SJC).

On December 20,2011, the APG consortium which includes Chunghwa Telecom, KT and NTT and other members signed in Beijing the APG C&MA. But the APG C&MA was not effective until early July 2012 when Facebook and Time dotCom were enrolled to form the final 12-member APG consortium, including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Facebook, KT Corp, LG Uplus, NTT Communications, StarHub, Time dotCom (Global Transit)  Viettel and VNPT.

APG consortium selected NEC as the system supplier. The total cost of APG cable system is approximately USD560 million (inclusive of landing cost).

The APG cable system has been ready for service as of Oct 28, 2016.

The Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) is a 8148km intra-Asia submarine cable system constructed by a consortium including NTT, PLDT, StarHub and Telekom Malaysia.

The ASE cable consists of 6 fiber pair, connecting Japan to the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore,with branch to Hong Kong.  

The ASE cable system was initially designed with 40 Gbps transmission and OADM technologies, with a design capacity of 15Tbps,  upgradable to a maximum design capacity of 51Tbps using 100 Gbps technology.

Telekom Malaysia (TM) owns one-third stake and two dedicated fiber pairs in the ASE cable system, with which TM builds its wholly owned Cahaya Malaysia Cable system.

The ASE cable system was launched for service on August 20, 2012, supplied by Fujitsu and NEC, with a total cost of about USD430 million, in which Telekom Malaysia invested about USD140 million and PLDT invested about USD55 million.

The ASE cable system lands at the following cable landing stations:

• Shin-Maruyama, Japan
• Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong
• Daet, Philippines
• Mersing, Malaysia
• Changi, Singapore

The ASE cable system is carefully designed to avoid earthquake zone in South Taiwan, offer ultra low latency between Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore by terminating in the neighborhood of Stock Exchanges in Hong Kong and Singapore and landing directly at NTT’s Hong Kong Financial Data Center in Tseung Kwan O.

The typical latency (RTD) over ASE cable system is:

• Hong Kong Stock Exchange to @Tokyo data center: 42.3ms
• Singapore Stock Exchange to @Tokyo data center: 60.0ms
• Singapore Equinix SG1 to Seattle Westin data center: 150ms (over ASE+PC-1 north)
• Malaysia Mersing CLS to @Tokyo data center: 54 ms

Cahaya Malaysia is a two-fibre-pair cable system which is part of the 6-fibre-pair Asia Submarine-cable Express(ASE). While Cahaya Malaysia is owned by TM, the remaining 4 fibre pairs of the ASE are owned by NTT, StarHub and PLDT.

The Bharat Lanka Cable System is a 320-km submarine cable systems connecting  India and Sri Lanka. Initially it will have a capacity of 40 Gbit/s that will later be upgraded to 960 Gbit/s.

The Thailand - Indonesia - Singapore Cable Network (TIS) is a 1100-km regional submarine network linking Songkhla (Thailand), Batam (Indonesia) and Changi (Singapore). The TIS consortium includes CAT Telecom Public Company Ltd. of Thailand (CAT), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk of Indonesia (Telin) and Singapore Telecommunications Limited of Singapore (SingTel) which jointly invested 36 million to build the TIS cable network.

The TIS was ready for service on December 2, 2003, with an lit capacity of 30 Gbps and upgradeable up to 320Gbit/s.

The Dumai Malaka Cable System (DMCS) is a 147-km repeaterless submarine telecommunications cable system connecting Dumai in Indonesia and Malaka in Malaysia. The DMCS was ready for service in 2005, with a design capacity of 320 Gbps and lit capacity of 20 Gbps. The Dumai Malaka Cable System is supplied by NEC .

The Batam-Dumai-Melaka (BDM) submarine cable connects Malaysia and Indonesia with two routes, Melaka-Batam and Melaka-Dumai. The total cable lenght is approximately 400km.

The BDM cable runs across the Strait of Malacca, crossing over multiple existing submarine cables. There are extraordinarily busy shipping lanes, strong tidal currents and shoal water area, with 60 m as maximum depth. The BDM cable is buried 3 meters under the seabed.

The BDM cable system consists of 4 fiber pairs, two fiber pairs on each of Melaka-Batam and Melaka-Dumai routes, with a total system capacity up to 2.56Tbps (64ch x 10G x 4fp).

The BDM consortium comprises Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM),  PT XL Axiata Tbk and PT Mora Telematika Indonesia (Moratelindo). Huawei Marine Networks (now HMN Tech) offers end-to-end turnkey submarine system solutions for the BDM project.

The BDM cable system was ready for service in December, 2011.

The West Asia Crossing (WAC) is a intra-Asia submarine cable system planed by Pacnet. The WAC connects India through a landing station in Chennai, to both Malaysia and Singapore. The WAC is also designed to offer the flexibility of extending connectivity into Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through separate branching units, as well as the possibility of a second cable landing point in Mumbai to offer additional capacity to cables landing off the west coast of India.

The WAC will have a design capacity of 6 to 8 Tbps, with a ready-for-service (RFS) date targeted around early 2012.

The WAC project has not been implemented.

The Taiwan Strait Express-1 (TSE-1, also known as Tanshui-Fuzhou Submarine Cable) is the first submarine cable across the Taiwan Strait, linking Tanshui, Taiwan island and Fuzhou, mainland China. The TSE-1 submarine cable is about 270 Km, consists of 8 optical fiber pairs. The design capacity of the TSE-1 submarine cable system is 6.4 Tbps.

The TSE-1 consortium consists of China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile from mainland China, and Chuanghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, Far Eastone,and TIGC from Taiwan.

The TSE-1 cable project was completed on January 18, 2013.

Though the TSE-1 is widely toasted as the first submarine cable linking Taiwan island and mainland China, the first submarine optical fibre cable linking Taiwan and mainland China is the Kinmen-Xiamen submarine cable system which was ready for service on August 21, 2012, linking Kinmen island, Taiwan and Xiamen, mainland China.

The India Cloud Xchange (ICX) subsea cable system is a private cable to be constructed by Global Cloud Xchange (former Reliance GlobalCom), delivering a direct Mumbai-Singapore route to bypass current outage prone terrestrial routes between Mumbai and Chennai. The ICX subsea cable runs approximately 5,060 kilometers between Mumbai and Singapore.

Based on state-of-the-art 100G technology, the ICX cable is a four fiber pair system with initial design capacity per fiber pair at 80 x 100G.

The ICX cable system is expected to be ready for service in Q2 2016.

The ICX project has not been implemented.

The Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) is a 8,000 km subsea cable system connect the UAE, Oman, India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia, with a diverse terrestrial network from Malaysia to the Singapore points-of-presence at Equinix and Global Switch.

BBG consortium comprises Telekom Malaysia, Vodafone Group, Omantel, Etisalat, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Dialog Axiata.

Based on 100G DWDM coherent technology, BBG offers capacity of 10 Tbps per fibre pair on its three fiber pairs.

BBG goes live on April 8, 2016.

SEA Cable Exchange-1 (SeaX-1) comprises a 250km high-speed, large capacity, 24-fibre pair undersea fiber optic cable that connects Mersing (Malaysia), Changi (Singapore), and Batam (Indonesia). 

At Mersing, fiber backhaul connects to two major data centers in Kuala Lumpur, i.e. AIMS DC and CSF CX2 at Cyberjaya.  In Batam Island, fiber backhaul connects to Graha Pena and IDC at Batam Center. In Singapore, fiber backhaul connects to Global Switch Data Center. 

The SeaX-1 cable system is fully owned and operated by Super Sea Cable Networks Pte. Ltd..

The SeaX-1 cable system was ready for service in June 2018.

The Southeast Asia–Japan 2 (SJC2) submarine cable system spans 10500km, connecting 11 cable landing stations in Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Korea and Japan. 

The SJC2 cable features eight fibre pairs, at least 18Tbps of capacity per fiber pair, with initial design capacity of 144 Tbps.

SJC2 consortium comprises of China Mobile International (CMI), Chuan Wei, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), Donghwa Telecom (DHT), Facebook, KDDI, Singtel, SK Broadband (SKB), Telin, TICC (True) and VNPT.

SJC2 consortium selected NEC as the turn-key supplier.

The intial cost of SJC2 cable system is about US$440million. While its earlier generation SJC cable system cost about USD400 million for an intial design capacity of 28Tbps and cable length of 8900km. 

It is reported that TRUE will spend around Bt3.6 billion (approximately USD110 million) on SJC2 cable sytem and acquire 9Tbps (1/16 of the system capacity). 

TKO Express is the first submarine cable to directly link Chai Wan and Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate (TKOIE) in Hong Kong. With 1,728 fiber cores, spanning just 3.5 km across Tathong Channel, TKO Express provides a direct, low-latency path to link data centers in Chaiwan and the emerging data centre hub at Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate (TKOIE).

TKO Express is 18.2 km shorter than the alternate route from Sino Favor Centre to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). The short, direct path delivers the low-latency financial organisations demand for real-time transactions.

TKO Express is built, owned and operated by Superloop.

TKO Express was ready for service in june 28, 2017.

The Ultra Express Link (UEL) is a 3km high-capacity, low latency subsea cable system connecting the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate (TKOIE) with the Chai Wan area in Hong Kong.

The UEL cable system provides additional diversity in connectivity for the multiple data centers in TKOIE, and serves to position the TKOIE as Asia’s data center hub.

THe UEL is built, owned and operated by HKT which is majority-owned by PCCW Limited. PCCW Global is the international operating division of HKT.

Chennai-the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (A&N Islands) submarine cable system includes a segment with repeaters from Chennai to Port Blair and seven segments without repeaters between the islands of Havelock, Little Andaman (Hutbay), Car Nicobar, Kamorta, the Great Nicobar Islands, Long Island and Rangat. The total cable length will be approximately 2,300km and carry 100Gb/s optical waves.

The Chennai-A&N Island submarine cable system is invested by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL),and supplied by NEC. BSNL is a state-owned telecom operator in India. It's reported that the government of India spent $175 million on the 2300km Chennai-A&N Island submarine cable system.

On August 10, 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Chennai-A&N Island submarine cable between Chennai and Port Blair via video conferencing. The Chennai-A&N Island submarine cable system will deliver bandwidth of 2 x 200 Gbps between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2 x 100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands of Andaman and Nicobar Islands chain.

The Pak-China Optic Fiber Cable (Pak-China OFC) covers a distance of 822 kilometers and runs from Rawalpindi till Khunjerab pass to connect with China.

The Pak-China OFC is operated and maintained by Special Communication Organization, deployed by Huawei Technologies at a total cost of $44 million.

Malaysia-Cambodia-Thailand (MCT) cable system connects Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand, spans approximately 1,300 kilometers, adopts 100 Gbps technology with a system capacity of 30+ Tbps.

The MCT cable system lands at Sihanoukville in Cambodia, Rayong in Thailand and Cherating (near Kuantan, Penang) in Malaysia respectively.

The MCT cable system is jointly built by Telcotech, a subsidiary of EZECOM in Cambodia, Symphony Communication of Thailand and  Telekom Malaysia.

The MCT cable system launched for service in March 2017, with an initial capacity of 1.5Tbps.

In Cambodia, the MCT cable system connects to AAG and other submarine cable system. Telcotech is the only Cambodian member of the AAG which links Southeast Asia to the USA.

As the landing party for MCT cable system in Thailand, Symphony is the first private submarine cable operator in Thailand, owns and operates the Maolee Cable Landing Station in Rayong, Thailand.

Royal Bengal Tiger-2 (RBT-2) a new submarine cable connecting Bangladesh to Singapore, with 8 fiber pairs.

The RBT-2 is initiated and invested by SBSCL, SPARKbANGLA Submarine Cables Ltd, and is expected to be ready for service in March 2023.

The Myanmar/Malaysia India Singapore Transit (MIST) cable system has a total length of 8,100km, connecting Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, India (Mumbai and Chennai). 

The MIST cable system consists of 12 fiber pairs, with more than 216Tbps system capacity. The total intial cost of the MIST cable system is approximately US$400million. 

The MIST cable system is invested by Orient Link Pte. Ltd. (OLL), a strategic joint venture of NTT Ltd., Fund Corporation for the Overseas Development of Japan’s ICT and Postal Services Inc. (JICT) , WEN Capital Pte. Ltd., incorporated for international submarine cables in Singapore on October 10, 2019.

NEC Corporation (NEC) wins the agreement to build the MIST Cable System (MIST).

The India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) is a submarine cable connecting Mumbai and Chennai to Singapore and interconnects with the India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) in Mumbai to reach the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The IAX cable system has 12 cable landing stations across five nations, with branches in Matara (Sri Lanka), Satun (Thailand), and Morib (Malaysia), in addition to the main trunk from Tuas (Singapore) to Mumbai.

The IAX is built by Reliance Jio Infocomm and is expected to be operational in 2023/2024.

Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE) is a 675 km submarine cable system connecting Hong Kong SAR and Hainan Province, Mainland China, with branch to Guangdong Province.

The H2HE cable system is the first 16 fiber-pair repeatered submarine cable system in the world, designed with SDM technology, achieving 19.2Tbps capacity per fiber pair, and 307.2Tbps system capacity. 

The H2HE cable system is invested and owned by China Mobile, supplied by HMN Tech.

The SIGMAR cable system is a 2,227km connecting Singapore and Myanmar, landing in Tuas in Singapore and in Thanlyin, southeast of Yangon in Myanmar.

The SIGMAR cable consists of four fiber pairs, running through the Andaman Sea and along the Straits of Malacca

The SIGMAR cable system connects Myanmar directly to Singapore, with branching units to enable optional landing in Thailand and future interconnections with other cables.

The SIGMAR cable system  is invested by Campana Group, partnering with Telin Singapore which will offer access to the landing site at Tuas as well as local connectivity in Singapore.

SIGMAR is scheduled to be ready for service in 2020.

The Maldives Sri Lanka Cable system (MSC) is a 840km and four fiber pairs subsea cable system connecting the Maldives and Sri Lanka, landing in Hulhumalé and Mount Lavinia.

The MSC consortium includes Ooredoo Maldives PLC (Ooredoo Maldives), Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun Public Limited Company (Dhiraagu Maldives) and Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog, Sri Lanka).

The MSC is supplied by Huawei Marine Networks, equipped with high-output titanium housing repeaters to achieve span length over 130km.

The MSC project costs approximately $22million.

The MSC cable system was ready for service on February 24, 2021.

The Orient Express submarine cable is a 1,300km cable system directly connect the UAE and Pakistan, landing points in Karachi and Gwadar in Pakistan, and Kalba in the UAE. 

The Orient Express cable system is developped by Du Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (Du) and Islamabad-based internet service provider Wi-Tribe LDI Pakistan.

As the partnering telecom operator for the project along with Wi-Tribe Pakistan LDI, Du is UAE’s landing party for the Orient Express cable system and provides cable landing station and infrastructure for the connectivity of the Orient Express cable system.

Wi-Tribe LDI Pakistan, owned by HB International Investments Limited, is the owner of the project in Pakistan and possesses requisite licenses as per the regulations of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. In February 2019, Wi-Tribe Pakistan LDI (Pvt.) Limited rebranded as Orient Express LDI (Pvt.) Limited. 

Emergent Telecommunications LLC, owned by HB International Investments, is the project management company for the Orient Express cable system.

HB International Investments, owned by a Pakistani expat in the UK, brings Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of USD 100 Million to build the  Orient Express cable system.

Arc, a joint venture between UAE’s du and Bahrain’s Batelco, is selected by Emergent Telecommunications as the lead consultant for the Orient Express submarine cable system, to provide consultancy services related to network configuration, tendering, supply contract negotiation and documentation, and overall project management for the Orient Express cable.

The Orient Express cable system consists of four fiber pairs and 40 Tbps of total design capacity, enabling faster connectivity via internet with the rest of the world.

The Asia Direct Cable (ADC) is a 9400 km submarine cable connecting China (Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong Province), Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ADC cable system will feature eight fiber pairs and is designed to carry more than 140 Tbps of traffic, enabling high capacity transmission of data across the East and Southeast Asian regions.

The ADC consortium comprises CAT, China Telecom, China Unicom, PLDT Inc., Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications and Viettel. The initial investment of the project is about US$290 million.

The ADC consortium has awarded the supply contract to NEC. ADC is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022.

The Singapore India Gateway (“SING”) submarine cable system is an ultra-high capacity connectivity between Singapore and India, with two landings in India at Mumbai and Chennai. The SING cable system will also have branches for connectivity to Indonesia, Thailand, and Oman.

Oman provides the perfect location for onward interconnectivity with many other existing and future systems being developed that connect at Oman, from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The SING cable system will enable a direct connect between this new Oman hub and the Singapore hub: datacenter to datacenter.

The Singapore India Gateway (SING) cable system has a target Ready for Service (RFS) date in Q2 2023 and by the time SING achieves RFS, over half of all the existing cable systems connecting India will be over 20 years old with two thirds of all cable landings controlled by just two incumbent operators.

The SING cable system will be an inaugural project initiated by Datawave Networks, headquartered in Cyprus, with offices in the India, Singapore, UK and the USA and operates with a growing team. 

In August 2021, Datawave Networks, trought its subsidiary and landing party in India, Datawave Networks Private Limited, acquired International Long Distance Telecommunications License（ILD License) from the Department of Telecommunications in India.

The TW1 cable system spans 1,300 km connecting Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Oman.

The TW1 cable system is privately owned and oeprated by Transworld Associates Private Limited (Transworld, or TWA), which is also the landing party in Pakistan for the SMW5 cable system.

Transworld is a joint venture of Orascom Investment Holding (now Global Telecom Holding S.A.E., based in Amsterdam, Netherlands), Orastar Limited and His Excellency Dr Omar Abdul Mone’m Yousuf Al Zawawi of Sultanate of Oman. 

The TW1 cable lands at:

• Karachi, Pakistan,
• Al Seeb, Oman, and
• Fujairah, UAE.

Transworld contracted with Omantel in July 2005 for a 15-year agreement that grants  Transworld the right to use Omatel’s Al Seeb Cable Landing Station as a land point for linking the present and future international cables in Oman.

Transworld signed a landing party agreement with the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (Etisalat) to land TW1 cable system at Fujairah Cable Landing Station.

The TW1 cable system comprises of two fibre pairs, with an initial design capacity of 1.28Tbps. There are 14 repeaters on the trunk of 1237km between Fujairah and Karachi, with a 60km branch to Al Seeb.

The TW1 cable system was supplied by TE SubCom and began operations in 2006.

In 2011, the TW1 cable system was upgraded with SubCom's solution to add six additional wavelengths, using plug and play technology.

In 2016, the TW1 cable system was upgraded with Huawei Marine's solution to add 3x100Gbps wavelengths in its original 10Gbps DWDM system.

TGN-Gulf is a 4031km submarine cable connnecting Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. TGN-Gulf connects to a branch unit of TGN-EA near Oman, forming connections onwards to Mumbai, India and Europe.

TGN-Gulf is a consortium cable led by Tata Communications. Bahrain Internet Exchange in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Nawras (now Ooredoo Oman) of Oman, Qatar Telecom (now Ooredoo) of Qatar, Mobily of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates are exclusive landing parties for the TGN Gulf cable system in corresponding countries. 

By landing the TGN-Gulf cable system in Oman, Nawras (now Ooredoo Oman) became the second operator to operate international submarine cable in Oman.

The TGN-Gulf cable system lands at:

• Qalhat, Oman
• Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Al-Kheesa, Qatar
• Amwaj Island, Bahrain
• Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia

The TGN-Gulf cable system was supplied by TE SubCom, ready for service on 22 march 2012.

Pishgaman Oman Iran (POI) Network is a 400km submarine cable connecting Iran and Oman.

The POI cable system is privately owned by Pishgaman Kavir Asia (PKA), partnered with Omantel as the landing party in Oman. 

Pishgaman Kavir Asia (PKA) as s subsidiary of Pishgaman Cooperative Group, is the leading provider of telecommunication service in Iran. POI is the only iranian submarine cable developed by private sector, planned to connect Iran and other Middle East states to different pats of the world, through Oman and international gateways.

The POI cable system lands at:

• Barka, Oman
• Chabahar, Iran
• Jask, Iran

The POI cable system was ready for service in June 2012.

The OMRAN cable system is a 600km submarine cable connecting Oman and Iran, in conjunction with the Europe-Persia Express Gateway (EPEG) cable system.

The OMRAN cable system lands at:

• Barka, Oman
• Diba, Oman
• Khasab, Oman
• Jask, Iran
• Chabahar, Iran

The segment between Barka (Oman) and Jask (Iran) is part of the EPEG cable system. 

The OMRAN cable system was ready for service in Q1 2013.

The Fiber Optic Gulf (FOG) is a 1300km submarine cable system connecting Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE), ready for service in June 1998.

The FOG consortium comprises Kuwait Ministry of Communications, Batelco, Ooredoo and Etisalat.

The FOG cable system lands at:

• Kuwait City, Kuwait
• Manama, Bahrain
• Doha, Qatar
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Qatar-UAE Submarine Cable System is a 400 submarine cable system connecting Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ready for service in December 2004.

The Qatar-UAE Submarine Cable System is jointly owned and operated by Ooredoo (Qatar) and Etisalat (UAE).

The Qatar-UAE Submarine Cable System lands at:

• Doha, Qatar
• Halul Island, Qatar
• Abu Dhabi, UAE
• Das Island, UAE

The segment between Doha and the Qatari island of Halul span approximately 100 km, the segment between Halul and Das Island in the UAE is about 100km. 

The Indonesia Global Gateway (IGG) is a 5,300 kilometers subsea cable system that connects the cities of Dumai, Batam, Jakarta, Madura, Bali, Makassar, Bilikpapan, Takaran and Manado with Tuas, Singapore.

The IGG cable system consists of 4 fiber pairs, designed with 100Gbps x 80 wavelengths DWDM technology, for a total system capacity of 32Tbps.

The IGG cable system is a hub bridging the two cable systems, the SEA-US with the SEA-ME-WE 5 (SMW5). The IGG cable system connects with the SMW5 cable system in Tuas, Singapore and onward to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. On the other end, the IGG cable system connects with the SEA-US cable system in Manado to reach the Philippines and the United States.

The IGG cable system is a privately owned by Telin, supplied by NEC.

Telin Singapore is the owner and landing party for IGG Singapore landing. Telin Singapore received the Temporary Occupation License (TOL) Singapore Land Authority (SLA) in April 2019 for the construction of Beach Manhole (BMH) and Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) in Tuas Area, Singapore. It is the first Telkom Group's own landing point in its international footprint. The IGG cable system connects seamlessly to Telin’s Telin-3 Data Centre, located at 8 Sunview Drive, within the Singapore Data Centre Park (DCP) in Jurong. 

Telin-3 Data Centre is a five-storey 20,000-square-metre purpose-built data center, adopting multi-tier design. This design feature provides flexibility and modularity to customers, enabling them to select from a variety of tier ratings based on their business requirements. Telin-3 Data Centre achieved Tier-IV design certification and Tier-III Constructed Facility certification from Uptime Institute’s (UTI).

The Sistem Kabel Rakyat 1 Malaysia (SKR1M) is a 3700km  optical fiber submarine cable system connecting Cherating, Kota Kinabalu, Miri, Bintulu, Kuching and Mersing, a domestic submarine cable system connecting Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, upgradable to 12.8 Tbps of capacity.

SKR1M was established through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) collaboration between Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) and the Malaysian Government through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). TT dotCom Sdn Bhd (TTdC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of TIME dotCom Berhad (TIME) also funded and owns a portion of this submarine cable.

SKR1M was built with the objective of enhancing the existing domestic submarine cable connectivity between Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, thus catering for future bandwidth growth requirements.

NEC is the supplier of the SKR1M submarine cable system. 

The SKR1M submarine cable system was ready for service in September 2017.

Converge ICTSI Domestic Submarine Cable Network (CDSCN) is a domestic submarine cable network in the Philippines, spans 1,824 kilometer connecting 22 landing stations throughout the Philippines.

CDSCN consists of 48 fiber cores (24 fiber pairs), running on 400G and 800G technology, being an unrepeatered cable system.

CDSCN serves as a National Backbon Network of Converge ICT to interconnect major islands in the Philippines and serve high speed internet/broadband nationwide with highly efficient and effective services in reasonable and affordable price.

CDSCN is privately owned by Converge ICT Solutions Inc., a telecommunications company duly licensed to install, operate and maintain nationwide wired and wireless broadband network in the Philippines

The project is implemented by Metroworks ICT Construction Inc.  a subsidiary of Converge ICTSI. Metroworks ICT Construction Inc. is responsible for the Converge ICTSI’s Network Infrastructure build.

CDSCN is supplied by HMN Tech.

Converge completed the project on October 31, 2021.

Apricot subsea cable system is a 12,000-kilometer subsea cable connecting Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore.

The Apricot cable system will feature a state-of-the-art submersible reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer employing wavelength selective switch for a gridless and flexible bandwidth configuration, based on space division multiplexing design.

The Apricot consortium comprises Facebook, Google, NTT, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and PLDT.

NTT is responsible for operating and managing three cable landing stations for the Apricot cable system: Minamiboso CLS in Japan, Tuas CLS in Singapore and a cable landing station in Indonesia.

PLDT will build new cable landing stations in Luzon and Mindanao as part of the Apricot cable system. 

Hokkaido-Akita cable system is a 770km fiber optic submarine cable connecting Hokkaido and Akita Prefecture, Japan.

Hokkaido-Akita cable system is jointly built by NTT Communications Corporation, KDDI Corporation, SoftBank Corp. and Rakuten Mobile, Inc. It is the first submarine cable project participated by Rakuten Mobile, aiming to respond to the increase in traffic expected to come with the increasing adoption of 5G and other high speed, high-capacity networks, as well as expand redundancy in the network for times of emergency.

In addition, the joint construction agreement will allow for cost-effective construction of this valuable infrastructure.

Hokkaido-Akita cable system will have a designed capacity of more than 160 Tbps.

Globe Telecom’s Fiber Optic Backbone Network comprises three parts, i.e. Globe's FOBN and FOBN-2 and Telecphil's National Digital Transmission Network (NDTN), connecting the entire Philippines with more than 12,000 kilometers of submarine and land cables. 

FOBN

In early 2002, Globe Telecom and Fujitsu signed an $80-million contract covering the supply of transmission systems and submarine fiber optic cable system for Globe’s Fiber Optic Backbone Network (FOBN1) project, including the installation of land fiber optic cable, new buildings for equipment, DC power plant, generator sets, and other support facilities needed for the project, on a turnkey basis. This FOBN project connects Globe Telecom’s existing telecom network in Makati, stretching to Nasugbu in Batangas, connecting Mindoro, the islands of Panay and Negros, Cebu province, and Iligan City in Mindanao, with a total cable length length of 1,600 kilometers (combination of submarine and land cables).

FOBN2

In November 2009, Globe Telecom completed the FOBN2, which spanning over 1,900 kilometers of inland and submarine cable, covering most areas of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The FOBN2 project cost was around $70 million. FOBN2 serves as protection route for FOBN1.

In Septermber 2013,  Globe Telecom completed rollout of a 400km submarine fibre optic backbone connecting Palawan with the main island of Luzon, strengthening Palawan’s connectivity with the entire country and the rest of the world.

NDTN

National Digital Transmission Network (NDTN) was first launched in 1999 and built at an original cost of $70 million.

NDTN was owned the Telecoms Infrastructure Corp. of the Phils. (Telecphil), a seven-member joint venture consortium composed of BayanTel (57% as majority owner), Digitel, Eastern Telecoms (ETPI), Extelcom, Globe, Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and Smart. Telecphil was the second largest backbone network operator in the Philippines, following PLDT.

Globe Telecom acquired BayanTel in 2013 and 50% of ETPI in 2016, being the majority owner of Telecphil and its National Digital Transmission Network (NDTN). The NDTN backbone has a total length of 2,741 km.

PLDT's Domestic Fiber-Optic Network (DFON) is a nationwide fiber optic backbone network in the Philippines, comprised of nodes connected by terrestrial and submarine cable links configured with ten self-healing loops and two appendages extending to Palawan and Zamboanga.

Varuna Cable System (VCS) is a 3,400 km submarine fiber optic cable connecting Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Labuan Bajo, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Bawean, Madura island and return back to Java island to form a loop network in Indonesia. 

Varuna Cable System (VCS) is developed by PT Varuna Cahaya Santosa, a joint venture of PT NAP Info Lintas Nusa (Matrix NAP Info) and PT Communication Cable Systems Indonesia Tbk. (CCSI). Matrix NAP Info plays a role in supporting expertise in the operation and construction of the submarine cables. While CCSI is responsible as a procurement and deployment contractor (Engineering Procurement Construction), and operation and maintenance.

Matrix is a prominent telecommunication company based in Jakarta, Indonesia, founded in 2000. Matrix owns and operates Matrix Cable System (MCS) connecting Singapore and Indonesia

CCSI and Matrix NAP Info have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) which is interested to take part in equity participation in VCS.

Varuna Cable System (VCS) consists of 48 fiber cores (24 fiber pairs) repeaterless submarine cable, made by CCSI.

The South-East Asia Hainan-Hongkong Express Cable System (SEA-H2X) is a submarine cable connecting Hong Kong SAR China, Hainan China, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia (Borneo Island) and Singapore, with options to extend to Vietnam, Cambodia, the Malaysia Peninsula and Indonesia.

The SEA-H2X consortium comprises China Mobile International Limited (CMI), China Unicom Global (CUG) , Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions, Inc. (Converge) and PPTEL SEA H2X Sdn. Bhd (PPTEL SEA-H2X). The SEA-H2X Consortium selects HMN Technologies Co., Limited (HMN Tech) to build the system.

Construction and Maintenance Agreement (&MA) and Supply Contract for the SEA-H2X project were effective on March 4, 2022, and come into force as of May 12, 2022.

The SEA-H2X cable system consists of at least 8-fiber pairs between Hong Kong SAR and Singapore, with a design capacity of 160 Tbps to meet the growing bandwidth requirement in the region. Employing an open system model, SEA-H2X has the flexibility to choose best-in-breed Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) from third-party vendors at a later date. HMN Tech’s advanced Branching Unit (BU) and Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) benefits SEA-H2X in providing the ultimate flexibility of electrical power and optical fiber switches across multiple locations.

The SEA-H2X cable system is targeted to be ready-for-service in 2024.

The SEA-H2X will offer diverse connections to the Hainan Free Trade Port, in additional to the Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE) submarine cable system.

The Batam Sarawak Internet Cable System (BaSICS) is a submarie cable connecting Sarawak (Malaysia) and Batam (Indonesia), spanning about 700km.

The BaSICS cable system consists of 6 fiber pairs, designed with 80x100Gbps per fiber pair, i.e. 8Tbps per fiber pairs, for a total system capacity of 48Tbps.

The BaSICS cable system is privately developed by PP Telecommunication Sdn. Bhd. (PPTel), a Sarawak-based company, with XL Xiata as its landing partner in Batam, and supplied by FiberHome as its first repeatered international subsea cable project.

The BaSICS cable system lands at PPTEL DC @Santubong 1 in Kuching, Sarawak. PPTEL DC @Santubong 1 is certified with Tier-IV Design Certification by Uptime Institute.

The BaSICS cable system has been ready for service as of June 1, 20022. It forms the shortest latency route from Sarawak to Singapore, less than 9ms between PPTEL DC @Santubong 1 and Equinix Singapore SG3.

PPTel also host the Sarawak International Internet Gateway (SIIG) at the PPTEL DC @Santubong 1.

On August 2, 2022, PPTEL announced its new corporate brand identity, "irix", to align with the transformation that is being undertaken across the organization.

On September 6, 2022, irix officially launched the Batam-Sarawak Internet Cable System (BaSICS) and Tier IV Data Centre, the irix DC @ Santubong 1 (irix DC).

The Saudi Vision Cable is a 1,160km submarine cable connecting Jeddah, Yanbu, Dibba and Haql, the major subsea hubs in Red Sea cities of Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Vision Cable is privately owned by stc, supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN).

The Saudi Vision Cable consists of 16 fiber pairs, designed with 18Tbps per fiber pair.

The named Saudi Vision Cable is inspired by the “Saudi 2030 vision” as a game changer for the subsea cables in the region. This state-of-the-art submarine cable system will enable a unique and low latency route, linking the major subsea hubs in Red sea cities of Saudi Arabia.

The cable will help in improving the cost efficiency and flexibility of the unified efficient fiber optic platform and provide access to all international cables in the landing stations and information centers of stc Group.

The Asia Link Cable (ALC) is approximately 6,000-kilometer in length, connecting Hong Kong SAR China and Singapore as its trunk, with branches into the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam and Hainan, China.

The ALC cable system will have a minimum eight fiber pairs, with 18 Tbps/Fiber Pair minimum trunk design capacity, adding more capacity and diversity to existing networks in the region.

The ALC project is expected to cost US$300million (SG$420.8million)

The ALC consortium comprises China Telecom Global Limited (CTG), Globe Telecom, Inc. (Globe), DITO Telecommunity Corporation (DITO), Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel), Unified National Networks Sdn Bhd (UNN), FPT Telecom (Vietnam), and Malaysia Telecom.

HMN Technologies Co., Limited (HMN Tech) was awarded as the system supplier and is expected to complete the construction of ALC by the third quarter of 2025.

Philippine Domestic Submarine Cable Network (PDSCN) is the longest undersea fiber cable network in the Philippines, spanning 2500km.

PDSCN is jointly owned by Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (ETPI or Eastern Communications), Globe Telecom Inc. (Globe) and InfiniVAN, Inc.. ETPI is , jointly owned by PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc., while InfiniVAN is a subsidiary of Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed IPS, Inc. TSE: 4390).

The vendors of the PDSCN project includes  Nexans, Kokusai Cable Ship Co., Ltd, Fleet Marine Cable Solutions, Inc., SJA Business Consultancy and Liaison Services, and Kyotosh. 

The total cost of the PDSCN project is approximately US$150 million.

The PDSCN project is expected to be operational before the end of Q2 2023.

The Bridge One is a new subsea cable connecting Pohang, South Korea to Fukuoka, Japan.

The Bridge One cable system is planned by DCT cable, a South Korea company. The system is expected to be ready for service in 2025, with 24 fiber pairs.

The Oman Emirates Gateway (OEG) is a 275-km  international fibre optic submarine cable connecting the UAE and Oman.

The Oman Emirates Gateway (OEG) connects two international data centres – Equinix MC1 in Barka, Oman and datamena DX1 in Dubai, UAE.

The Oman Emirates Gateway (OEG) is jointly owned, built and operated by Omani service provider Omantel and du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC).

The Patara-2 cable system is a domestic submarine cable in Indonesia, spanning approximately 1,200 kilometers to connect the cities of Waisai, Manokwari, and Supiori.

The Patara-2 cable system consists of 2 fiber pairs, designed with 100 Gbps x 80 wavelengths, for a total system capacity of 16 Tbps.

This Patara-2 cable system is owned by Telkom Indonesia, the biggest digital telco company in Indonesia, supplied by NEC, ready for service in October 2023. 

In addition to the Patara-2 cable system, NEC also supplied the Indonesia Global Gateway (IGG) and the Sulawesi Maluku Papua Cable System (SMPCS) and others in Indonesia.

The NO-UK Cable System is an open cable system providing a total of eight dark fibre pairs and up to 216 Tbps system capacity, connecting Stavanger in Norway and Newcastle in the United Kingdom (UK). 

The NO-UK cable is developed by NO-UK Com, the consortium comprising Altibox Carrier as the operator, Haugaland Kraft, BKK, Ryfylke IKS, Green Mountain, Polysys and Hatteland Group. Through Altibox Carrier, the consortium offers dark fiber or capacity backhaul routes to any major PoP in the Nordics or UK. 

The NO-UK cable system is supplied by Xtera, achieved provisional acceptance in December 2021.

The NO-UK cable system has achieved a record-breaking 800Gbps line rate using Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optical technology. 

The NO-UK is part of a larger European fibre network established by Altibox Carrier, connecting Norway to important digital hubs such as London, Brussels, Amsterdam and Hamburg. 

Altibox Carrier's fiber network across Europe (Source: Altibox Carrier)

The Skagen Fiber West is a 170km and repeaterless submarine cable connecting Norway (Larvik) and Denmark (Hirtshals), ready for service on November 4^th, 2020.

The Skagen Fiber cable system consists of 48 fiber pairs, provides over 1920 Tbps of system capacity and a designed round-trip delay (RTD) of approximately 1.7 ms between the Larvik cable landing stations in Norway and Hirtshals cable landing station in Denmark.

The Skagen Fiber cable system is owned by Lyse/Altibox (100%).

In December 2019, Altibox acquired 100% of shares in Skagenfiber AS and the Skagen Fiber cable system between Norway and Denmark. Combined the Skagen Fiber cable system and the NO-UK cable system, Altibox Carrier is establishing a large fiber network across Europe, EUROCONNECT-1.

On the Norwegian side, the cable meets up with Altibox' extensive national fibre network allowing for low latency connectivity to any of the major data centre locations, such as Stavanger, Rjukan and Oslo.

In Denmark, the cable is extended by Altibox Carrier's new international network achieving POP to POP connectivity between major hubs.

The Skagen Fiber cable provides a low-latency alternative from Oslo to major European interconnection points such as Esbjerg, Hamburg, Amsterdam and London, creating new diversity from Sweden where most of the traffic to and from Norway transits.

The COBRA Fiber Optic Cable is a 325km dark fiber G.654.D low loss cable between Eemshaven in the Netherlands and Endrup (Esbjerg) in Denmark via the German sector of the North Sea.

The COBRA Fiber Optic Cable can be connected to a subsea cable to the UK in Esbjerg, and a subsea cable to Norway in Bulbjerg.

The COBRA Fiber Optic Cable has been laid alongside the COBRAcable HVDC submarine electricity interconnector.

The COBRA Fiber Optic Cable has primarily been installed to control the HVDC electricity interconnector,  the remaining capacity is used for commercial purposes.

Both the COBRA Fiber Optic Cable and the COBRAcable HVDC submarine cable electricity interconnector are owned by TenneT TSO and Energinet. The Dutch company Relined Fiber Network is responsible for leasing the dark fiber capacity on the COBRA Fiber Optic Cable.

The COBRA cable forms a completely redundant and low latency route to Denmark. Running over the COBRA cable, the latency from Copenhagen to Amsterdam is less than 9ms (leading latency has been 11.5 ms), and latency from Copenhagen to London is 13.8 ms (leading latency has been 16.7 ms).

About the COBRAcable

The COBRAcable has been designed to facilitate the direct transport of wind energy generated at offshore wind farms, facilitating the transport of renewable energy and enhancing the security of supply.

COBRAcable is a 325km HVDC submarine cable electricity interconnector between Eemshaven in the Netherlands and Endrup in Denmark via the German sector of the North Sea.The COBRAcable submarine cable directly interconnects the high-voltage grids of the Netherland and Denmark. The COBRAcable has a capacity of 700 MW and has been commissioned since 2019.

The Celtic Norse Cable system is the first submarine fiber optic cable between Norway and Ireland, with further connectivity to the United States, enabling Norway to position itself as a prime entrant into the hyperscale and enterprise data center market.

The Celtic Norse cable route is approx. 2000km, lands at 

• Oysanden, in Melhus municipality in Norway, just south of the city of Trondheim, onwards terrestrial connections going south to Oslo-and mainland Europe, as well as spur cables linking Northern Norway, and
• Killala Bay, County Mayo in Ireland, where the trans-Atlantic AEC-1 cable lands.

The Celtic Norse Consortium comprises Celtic Norse AS, Vodafone Iceland and Aqua Comms.

Aqua Comms is the operations partner for Celtic Norse Cable system, as the landing party in Ireland and providing system NOC services to the consortium.

The Celtic Norse cable system is planned to be ready for service (RFS) in 2021.

North Sea Connect (NSC) is subsea cable to connect Newcastle in the UK and Denmark, providing diversity between the UK and Northern Europe avoiding London.

North Sea Connect (NSC) is part of the Havhingsten cable system, jointly built and owned by Aqua Comms, Bulk Fiber Networks and Meta (Facebook).  The Havhingsten cable systemcompriese three segments, an unrepeatered subsea segment in the Irish Sea (CC-2), a repeatered segment in the North Sea (NSC)  and a terrestrial segment linking CC2 and NSC in the UK. 

The NSC cable system connects AEC System directly into Europe using the existing CeltixConnect-1 Irish Sea crossing as well as the CeltixConnect-2  crossing the Irish Sea.

The North Sea Connect cable system is owned and operated by Aqua Comms.

The North Sea Connect cable system is supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), with its innovative and the world’s first aluminum conductor subsea cable.

The North Sea Connect cable system was ready for service in March 2022.

The CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) is a repeaterless submarine cable connecting Dublin and Blackpool via the Irish Sea, with Branching Units to the Isle of Man. being part of the Havhingsten cable system.

The CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) connects with the existing CeltixConnect-1 and the North Wales Connect to form a fully diverse and reliable circuit between Dublin and Blackpool, with connectivity to New York and London through the AEConnect network.

The CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) is part of Aqua Comms' North Atlantic Loop network. CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) and CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) form a fully diverse ring between Dublin and Blackpool.

The CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) cable system was ready for service in March 2022.

CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) is a 131km long submarine cable system with 72 fibre pairs between Ireland and the U.K. 

CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) provides the shortest, most secure crossing of the Irish Sea from Dublin to Anglesey in the north-west coast of Wales.

CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) was ready for service in 2012 and is a part of Aqua Comms'North Atlantic Loop network.

CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) form a fully diverse ring between Dublin and Blackpool.

C-Lion1 submarine cable, also known as Sea Lion,  is a 4-fiber-pair and 1175km submarine cable from Helsinki in Finland to Rostock in Germany under the Baltic Sea, being the first direct submarine cable link between the Nordic region and continental Europe.

C-Lion1 (Sea Lion) provides a direct, low latency and cyber secure Internet backbone connection between Finland and Germany, Before the completion of C-Lion1, all data transmission to Finland has taken place via Denmark and Sweden.

Cinia Group leads the Sea Lion initiative as the developer and builder of the submarine cable, and later as an open access network operator. The Finnish Government is an enabler and investor of the initiative together with institutional investors OP-Pohjola and Ilmarinen. Investments with equity and debt financing will total at approximately 100 million Euros. The sea cable initiative is designed to meet the commercial terms and moderate profitability as long term infrastructure investment, bringing also significant direct and indirect economic benefits such as decisions by international data center operators and data intensive organizations to locate their operations in Finland.

The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications finalized the feasibility study on the C-Lion1 (Sea Lion) undersea cable project in June 2012. In August 2015, the Finnish government approved the construction of the C-Lion1 cable system. And Sea Lion cable project was completed in early 2016.

The C-Lion1 cable project is  supplied by ASN, with a total cost of approximately Euro 100 million.

CrossChannel Fibre is a next-generation 550km subsea cable (with a 149km submarine segment) and the first fibre-optic subsea cable to be built across the English Channel in nearly twenty years.

CrossChannel Fibre directly connects Equinix LD4 in Slough, to Interxion PAR3 and Equinix PA7 in Paris with extensions to various points-of-presence in both cities.

CrossChannel Fibre is a high-fibre-count and non-repeatered subsea system, contains 96 fibre pairs, and is capable of supporting over 2,400Tbps of capacity.

CrossChannel Fibre is designed to support the increase in bandwidth requirements from telecoms, enterprises, content providers, as well as financial, gaming, and media companies that require high capacity, low latency connectivity.

CrossChannel Fibre is owned and operated by Crosslake Fibre, and has been ready for service as of December 7, 2021.

The Black Sea Fibre Optic System (KAFOS) is a 504km subsea cable connecting Istanbul, Turkey with Bucharest, Romania.

The KAFOS cable passes through Bulgaria and under the Black Sea, from Istanbul to Bucharest.

The KAFOS cable system has a design capacity of 8Tbps.

The KAFOS cable system was ready for service in January 2021.

HAVSIL is a repeaterless subsea cable connecting Norway to continental Europe, with 120km in length and 96 fiber pairs.

HAVSIL is the first subsea cable project fully built, operated and financed by Bulk Fiber Networks, partnered with Fugro for marine survey, NSW (part of Prysmian Group) as cable manufacturer, and Cecon for the installation and marine operations.

The HAVSIL cable between Norway and Denmark spans Skagerrak, the strait separating the two nations, with 96 fiber pairs fully buried on the seabed for protection and reliability. HAVSIL significantly improves connectivity, capacity and route diversity between Norway and continental Europe.

HAVSIL delivers a low latency, high capacity, express route between Bulk’s data center campuses N01 in Kristiansand and DK01 in Esbjerg. 

Bulk offers flexible IRU or long-term lease agreements for single or multiple Dark Fiber pairs on the HAVSIL cable system.

The construction of the HAVSIL cable system (wet segment) was completed in September 2021, while its terrestrial extention was completed in March 2022.

IRIS is a new high-speed undersea cable system, spans approximately 1,700 km in length and connects south west of Iceland to Ballyloughane Strand in Galway, Ireland.

The IRIS cable system is designed with a six-fiber pair trunk for a total system capacity of 132 Tbps, or 22Tbps per fiber pair.

The IRIS cable system is privately owned and operated by Farice. Farice is fully owned by the Icelandic Government and plays an important role in Iceland's infrastructure for the greater public good and economic life in Iceland. In additional to the new IRIS cable system, Farice owns and operates another two submarine systems connecting Iceland to Europe, FARICE-1 and DANICE.

The IRIS cable system is supplied by SubCom.

SubCom announced contract-in-force for the IRIS cable system in April 2021, and achieved provisional acceptance and system handover on November 11th 2022.

The IRIS cable system was ready for service on March 1, 2023.

Albania Crossing is a new direct optical fiber route connecting Athens to Milan, with the combination of subsea and terrestrial segments, ready for service in June 2021.

Albania Crossing crosses Albania, the Italy-Albania submarine cable and the Italian backbone, establishing the shortest path from Athens to Milan with the possibility to reach all the other major hubs in Western Europe through Sparkle’s extensive continental network. The Italy-Albania submarine cable is a 220km and repeaterless submarine cable connecting Bari, Italy and Durres, Albania.

Albania Crossing is built by Telecom italia Sparkle, in cooperation with Albtelecom, the largest telecommunication company in Albania.

Italy-Albania is a 220km and repeaterless submarine cable connecting Bari, Italy and Durres, Albania.

Italy-Albania cable system consists of 3 fiber pairs, originally designed with each one fiber pair for working, protection and backup.

Italy-Albania cable system is jointly owned by Telecom italia Sparkle and Albtelecom, ready for service in 1997.

In June 2021, Telecom italia Sparkle launched new Albania Crossing route, which crosses Albania, the Italy-Albania submarine cable and the Italian backbone, establishing the shortest path from Athens to Milan with the possibility to reach all the other major hubs in Western Europe through Sparkle’s extensive continental network.

The IONIAN submarine cable system is a 320km repeaterless submarine cable connecting Crotone, Italy, with Preveza, Greece.

The IONIAN submarine infrastructure is complemented by two terrestrial fibre rings connecting the system to the cities of Milan and Rome in Italy and Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece.

The IONIAN cable system consists of 24 fiber pairs, capable of 15 Tbps per fiber pair with existing technology, bringing the total potential capacity of the submarine cable to 360 Tbps, delivering wholesale capacity, optical spectrum and dark fibre to telecommunication operators and content providers.

The IONIAN submarine cable system is jointly developed and owned by IslaLink and Elettra, a fully owned subsidiary of Orange.

Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, IslaLink is an independent and neutral telecommunications operator specialized in submarine fiber-optic systems and related activities. IslaLink is now owned by Fiera Infrastructure, a leading investor across all subsectors of the infrastructure asset class. Fiera Infrastructure acquired 100% of IslaLink in July 2018.

The IONIAN cable system was ready for service on April 25, 2023.

The Italy-Greece 1 (IG1) fiber cable is a 169km repeaterless submarine cable connecting Otranto in Italy with Aethos in Greece.

The IG1 fiber cable was ready for service in 1995, owned by WIS Telecom. WIS Telecom was born as M-Link International Gateway of Orascom companies. In November 2016, UNIFI communications., a leading US-based international telecommunications carrier, acquired 100% of WIS Telecom.

The IG-1 fiber cable hasn't been utilized to its full potential, due to its unusual origin alongside an Italy-Greece undersea electrical power cable.

Both the submarine electrical power cable and the IG-1 submarine fiber optic cable illustrated were constructed by Pirelli in 1995 for TERNA, the largest independent electricity transmission system operator in Europe.

As a result, the IG-1 fiber cable does not have the traditional arrangements found with most undersea fiber cable systems, such as cable landing licenses issued by national (telecommunications) authorities, purpose-built beach landing facilities, and purpose-built cable stations.  At the time, TERNA’s primary objective was the construction of the power cable from Italy to Greece, and the installation of the IG-1 fiber cable was secondary.  In other words, the IG-1 fiber cable was built at the same time as the power cable to satisfy TERNA’s long-term internal communications needs for the power cable.

Within the IG-1 cable, TERNA included plenty of extra fiber, which suggests they may have been planning to sell dark fiber to third parties.  As it turned out, TERNA sold the entire IG-1 fiber cable to WIND Italy and retained only a few fibers for their own internal use.  At the time, TERNA made an agreement with WIND Italy to extend some of the fibers to reach WIND’s nearest Point of Presence (PoP) from the TERNA landing site, which primarily serves as TERNA’s electrical substation for the power cable.  Subsequently, WIND Italy transferred the ownership of the IG-1 fiber cable to its subsidiary, WIS Telecom. But WIND did not extend all of the spare IG-1 fibers out from the TERNA power substation, leaving many dark fibers stranded and unused at the landing facilities in Otranto, Italy, and Aethos, Greece.

OTEGlobe Kokkini-Bari submarine cable system connects Bari, Italy and Kokkini, Greece, with two unrepeatered submarine cables between Greece and Italy, of approximately 350 kilometers each, ready for service in June 2004.

OTEGlobe Kokkini-Bari submarine cable system is privately owned by OTEGlobe, form an essential part of OTEGLOBE’s European network.

In the mid of 2022, OTEGlobe selected Infinera's ICE6 800G coherent solution to upgrade its pan-European network. By deploying Infinera's ICE6, OTEGLOBE will double capacity in selected parts of its diverse terrestrial backbone network, deliver up to 16.4Tbps of capacity per fiber pair over the two unrepeatered submarine cables between Greece and Italy, and offer new 400 GbE services to its customers. 

BalaLink is the first independent submarine cable built in Spain, spanning 262km to connect Valencia to Palma de Mallorca.

BalaLink cable system consists of 24 fiber pairs, without repeater, ready for service in October 2001, privately owned by IslaLink.

There are two additional system sections providing diverse and backup routes connecting Valencia to Palma de Mallorca. The first backup route connects Palma de Mallorca to Ibiza (158km) and the second route connects Ibiza to Valencia (154 km).  A fourth section was added into operation in 2013, linking the north of Valencia to Palma de Mallorca (250 km).  

In total, the BalaLink cable system has 824 km of submarine cable complemented by almost 200 km of terrestrial network, which links the customer sites with the 4 technical buildings (cable landing stations) of the system: two in Valencia, one in Ibiza and one in Palma de Mallorca. 

The BalaLink cable system is equipped for a potential capacity of 1 Tbps and can be scaled up to 44 Tbps to meet future demand.

Mallorca Ring

In addition, IslaLink operates the Mallorca Ring, a 300km terrestrial fiber ring connects Palma with Manacor, Muro, Sa Pobla, Inca, Sóller and the technology park Parcbit, delivering a protected point to multipoint service that gives access to the networks of local operators in Mallorca.

CanaLink cable system is a 1835km submarine cable connecting the Canary Islands to Rota, Spain's mainland.

CanaLink cable system is now 100% own by Canarias Submarine Link, SLU (CanaLink), the operation company owned by IT3 (Instituto Tecnológico de Telecomunicaciones de Tenerife, which is majority owned by Cabildo de Tenerife and devoted to the development of ICT sectors in the island). 

CanaLink was a joint venture equilly owned by IT3 and IslaLink, established in 2010 for the construction of the CanaLink cable system, wholly owned by IT3 since 2013.

The CanaLink cable system consists of several sub-systems:

1. Tenerife – Rota, with a branch to Gran Canaria-East
2. Tenerife – La Palma
3. Tenerife – Gran Canaria West
4. Tenerife – Peninsula protection (by means of a third-party cable)
5. Rota – Asilah branch (called Loukkos: a system belonging to Maroc Telecom)

Furthermore, the system incorporates several terrestrial transmission networks:

• In the peninsula, the network connects the landing points to the CLSs of Rota and Conil, and, from there, to Seville and Jerez respectively
• In Tenerife, a dual route links the CLSs at Güimar and Granadilla and connects them to a metropolitan ring in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
• In Gran Canaria, the landing points are connected to the CLSs of Tarahales (Gran Canaria-West) and el Goro (Gran Canaria-East). The terrestrial optical fiber network links them to las Palmas de Gran Canaria
• In the Island of La Palma, a terrestrial fiber pair connects the landing point to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

The CanaLink cable system was designed with an initial system capacity of 5.12 Tbps along the main segment from continental Spain (Rota) to Tenerife, ready for service in 2011 and supplied by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN).

CanaLink Cable Route, Source: IslaLink

BT North Sea is a submarine cable system that comprises 2 individually distinct branches, North and South.

The North branch (Iceni) connects Eastern England (Winterton-on-Sea) to the Netherlands (Callantsoog). The Southern branch (Mercator) connect South Eastern England (Broadstairs - Joss Bay) to Belgium (Oostende).

The BT North Sea cable system will increase telecommunication reliability and diversity between the regions and increase data transmission capacity and speeds, helping to satisfy the growing demand for transmission capacity in Europe, The UK and the wider globe.

BT North Sea cable system is privately owned by BT, supplied by SubCom, to be ready for service in 2021.

Tangerine is a submarine telecommunications cable system across the English Channel linking the United Kingdom and Belgium.

The Tangerine cable lands at:

1. Dumpton Gap, Broadstairs, Kent, United Kingdom
2. Mariakerke near Ostend, West Flanders, Belgium

The Tangerine cable system consists of four fiber bundles, each of 48 fibers, for a total of 192 fibers (96 fiber pairs) and a total cable length of 121 km.

The Tangerine cable is privately owned by Level3 (now Lumen), supplied by ASN and ready for service September 2000.

Zeus is a new highly fortified, hybrid, ultra-low-loss (ULL) cable directly connecting the UK to continental Europe via access points in Lowestoft, UK and Zandvoort, Netherlands. 

Zeus subsea cable is engeered to be the most dense, deeply-buried and robust cable available in the North Sea, and the route includes terrestrial backhaul connectivity to London and Amsterdam. The Zeus cable is buried between 2 and 3 metres under the seabed in comparison with half a metre for other existing cables. 

Zeus is deploying with high-fiber-count cable, 100% double armoured cable and ULL fibre technology, with 192 fiber (96 fiber pairs). Its wavelength throughput on a single channel between London and Amsterdam can reach up to 600Gbps. To meet customers’ next-generation bandwidth needs, the network can handle 2,650 Tbps of C Band when at capacity.

Zeus is developed by Zayo, runs parallel but diverse to Zayo's existing Circe North subsea route.

Zues was launches for service on July 11, 2022.

Nibble is Telecom italia Sparkle's software-defined ultra-long-haul backbone connecting Sicily with the major Points of Presence and datacenters in Europe.

Telecom italia Sparkle announced to construct the Nibble network in June 2019.

Built on a 6,500 km photonic backbone, the Nibble network connects Sparkle's two major submarine cable landing stations in Sicily - Palermo and Catania - with Milan, Marseille, Frankfurt and Paris to the West and with Athens, Istanbul and Tel Aviv to the East.

Nibble has been extend by a further 6,300 km to northern Europe, interconnecting also London, Amsterdam and Brussels, thus reaching a total length of 12,800 km with a redundant network architecture for seamless connectivity from the Mediterranean basin to Europe.

Telecom italia Sparkle sets a renovated Network Operating Center (NOC) in Sicily Hub，which also serves as a 24-hour supervision center for Nibble.

By 2022, Sicily Hub will be also the landing point of BlueMed submarine cable system, the new multi-fiber submarine cable that will cross the Tyrrhenian Sea connecting Sicily with Genoa and Milan with up to 50% latency reduction compared to terrestrial cables. The BlueMed will form part of the Nibble network.

Nibble Network

Scylla Subsea Cable System is an unrepeatered subsea cable system linking London and Amsterdam, with a cable of 211km in length and 96 fiber pairs.

Scylla Subsea Cable System is the first subsea cable system between the UK and the Netherlands since 1999.

Scylla Subsea Cable System is privately owned and operated by euNetworks, ready for service on September 9, 2021.

Key features of the Scylla subsea cable system include:

• A low loss network that is entirely new fibre deployment.
• The terrestrial backhaul networks utilise new low-loss Corning SMF28 Ultra G657. A1 fibre cables and three entirely new amplification sites for the two cable landings and intermediate repeater in the UK.
• With existing sites and backhauls built over 20 years ago, these new facilities eliminate the unreliability of old infrastructure and provide scalable and power-efficient amplification housing, with significantly reduced long-run power demands.
• Scylla is a non-hybrid 96 pair double-armoured sea cable, solely using Corning’s SMF28 ULL (ultra low loss) G654.C pure silica fibre; giving all customers the benefit of future-proofed ultra-low attenuation on the 211km unrepeatered system.
• This low attenuation is critical to achieving lowest cost per bit, directly driving greater bandwidth per fixed-cost transponder.
• As well as ensuring deeper burial naturally, and laying the cable with precision and less impact on the seabed, euNetworks has buried Scylla up to 3 metres deep, offering better protection against strikes both today and in the future.

euNetworks launched Super Highway 1 linking Dublin and London to Lowestoft in November 2019. 

Scylla is the second Super Highway linking Lowestoft to IJmuiden and then onto Amsterdam. Combined with euNetworks’ existing metro networks in Dublin, Manchester, London and Amsterdam, the Scylla subsea cable system enables any data centre to any data centre connectivity between all these metros.

Super Highway 1 links Dublin via submarine cable to Southport, and then on to Manchester, London, and Lowestoft, directly connecting key data centres.

Key features of the Super Highway 1 includes：

• New fibre deployment
• 1000km high fibre count
• 340 new chambers, 239 new fibre joints, 2 new cable landing stations and 4 new PoP sites
• Optimised for lowest attenuation
• Subsea distance beach manhole to beach manhole of 221km
• Diverse from other live and planned systems
• Direct access to any Dublin and Manchester data centres
• Onward connection to Europe avoiding London

Super Highway 1 is privately owned and operated by euNetworks, ready for service in November 2019.

euNetworks also owns and operateds the Scylla Subsea Cable System linking London and Amsterdam.

The Havhingsten cable system is a 940km submarine cable system connecting the UK to the Nordics, with landings in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Blackpool and Newcastle in England, and Denmark.

The Havhingsten cable system is jointly owned, developed and operated by Aqua Comms, Bulk Fiber Networks and Meta (Facebook), supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). 

Aqua Comms rebrands its ownership in the Havhingsten cable system as CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) via the Irish Sea and North Sea Connect (NSC) connecting the UK and Denmark.

The Havhingsten cable system is the world’s first aluminum conductor powered subsea cable system. The removal of traditional copper raw material, and replacement with aluminum from the manufacturing process, benefits the overall system in efficiency and cost reduction, as copper is associated with variable availability and higher price. Additional benefits include improved resistance to hydrogen penetration, an element which is unfavorable to the operation of optical fiber in ocean waters. Furthermore, as a conductor, aluminum allows for a much lower cable voltage drop, which allows for a higher number of FPs per cable. That makes aluminum a solid option to increase the number of FPs per cable.

The Havhingsten cable system combines data transmission seamlessly across both an unrepeatered subsea segment in the Irish Sea, a terrestrial segment in the UK and a repeatered segment in the North Sea. Typical systems have one or two of these elements, but not all three. The system used an enhanced, jet-assisted burial plough in the North and Irish Sea segments, allowing installers to bury the cable to specific depths in very challenging seabed conditions.

The Havhingsten cable system was ready for service in March 2022.

 APOLLO-EAST and APOLLO-WEST are two optical fiber submarine cables connecting Pachi, Megara in the Attica region and Korakia, Herakleion in Crete, being domestic submarine cables linking the Crete Island with mainland Greece, each with a cable length of approximately 350km. 

APOLLO-EAST and APOLLO-WEST are built in parallel with the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Electrical Interconnection of Crete with Attica.

APOLLO-EAST and APOLLO-WEST are owned and operated by Grid Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator of Greece (IPTO).

APOLLO-EAST and APOLLO-WEST are designed, supplied and installed by Prysmian.

APOLLO-EAST and APOLLO-WEST are expected to be ready for service in Q2 2024.

In addition to APOLLO-EAST and APOLLO-WEST, Grid Telecom MINOAS-EAST and MINOAS-WEST connecting Crete with the Peloponnese region.

The Olisipo submarine cable system is an unrepeatered 110km domestic submarine cable connecting Sines to Lisbon in Portugal.

The Olisipo cable system is developled privately by EllaLink. 

EllaLink owns and operates the EllaLink cable connecting Europe to South America from Portugal to Brazil, offering the shortest latency route from Europe to South America. By creating the Sines to Lisbon domestic subsea cable system, EllaLink is reinforcing Portugal's interconnectivity ecosystem.

The Olisipo (Sines to Lisbon) submarine cable features:

• Direct DC to DC dark fibre connectivity with CLS pass through, and alternative on-demand PoPs; 
• Ultra-high capacity with 144 unrepeated fibre pairs with an optimised optical design, with an impressive total design capacity of 4.3 Petabits; 
• A buried subsea & land cable, providing a DC entry point diversity and HDD protection in Sines, with a robust & diverse route design; 
• Sustain Diversity, and; 
• Interconnectivity between the most relevant networks through the Equinix network
• Connecting major cable landing stations in Portugal, with trunk between Carcavelos CLS and Sines CLS, reserving branches to Seixal CLS and Sesimbra CLS

The Unitirreno cable has a total cable length of approximately 1,030 kilometers, with its main trunk connecting Mazara del Vallo to Genoa (890km) and a branch to Rome (140km).

The Unitirreno cable will be the first 24-fiber-pair Open Cable system in the Mediterranean Region delivering cutting-edge submarine technologies to support continuously increasing national and international bandwidth requirements.

The strategically planned Unitirreno submarine cable network will support Genoa development and deliver strategic landing points for intercontinental cables from Asia, the Middle East and Africa while providing a new route to major digital infrastructure hubs across Europe. To facilitate and enable OTTs, Carriers and Cable Consortiums to have a secure, low-latency alternative to Marseille as a cable landing hub in the Mediterranean. 

The Unitirreno cable project is developed by Italian Unidata, in a partnership with Pioneer Consulting for overall system consultancy and marine permit, and Ellettra (a subsidiary of Orange Marine) for marine deployment. The system is supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN).

The Unitirreno Open Cable System is based on 24 fiber pairs, end-2-end Mazara-Genoa Trunk Infrastructure, with:

• Design Capacity: 480Tbps (or 20 Tbps per fiber pair) on Mazara-Genoa Trunk, 320Tbps on Rome branch.
• Branching unit to new data center hub in Rome (under construction) to serve upcoming Unidata Data Center and Italian Domestic Network
• Stub to Sardinia and Palermo planned
• Terrestrial Backhauling Option in Sicily
• State-of-Art 24 Fiber Pairs Cost Efficient Technology
• Optical Level Switching Capabilities

The Medloop cable system is a submarine cable connecting Genoa, Marseille, Ajaccio and Barcelona.

The Medloop cable system is developed by Elettra Tlc S.p.A., a subsidiary of Orange Marine, and supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), to be ready for service in 2023.

The Ligurian capital city Genoa has been rising to a regional connectivity hub, with multiple new subsea cables, including BlueMed (also being portion of Google's Blue Raman), 2Africa, Medloop, Unitirreno.

Piano Isole Minori (Minor Islands Plan) links 21 Italian islands with a total of 860 kilometres of subsea cables.

Piano Isole Minori (Minor Islands Plan) is the plan of the Ministry of Economic Development for the implementation of infrastructural interventions related to the development of ultra-broadband in the smaller islands of Italia, an important part of the overall 'Italy 2026 Strategy'.

The Piano Isole Minori represents an investment of 45.6 M€.

Elettra Tlc Spa, a susbsidary of Orange Marine, was selected by Infratel Italia for the supply and installation of optical submarine cable of the Piano Isole Minori project.

All cable spare parts to be used for the maintenance of these cable segments will be stored in Elettra’s Cable Depot of Catania, base port of the Elettra’s maintenance vessel C/S Antonio Meucci.

The Norfest cable is a fully buried, 749 km submarine cable system linking Norway and Sweden, with 9 landings on the coast of Norway and into Sweden, to create unique and reliable routes connecting the UK to Europe via the Nordics.

The Norfest cable system consists of 48 and 96 fiber-pairs.

The Norfest cable system is developed by Tampnet. Nexan was selected to manufacture and supply the cable, and Cecon Contracting AS for cable installation.   

The Norfest cable system is scheduled to be ready for service in Q3 2023.

FLAG Europe Asia (now FEA), originally called Fibre-optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG), is a 28,000km submarine cable connecting 18 countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Europe. FLAG EA (FEA) was opened for commercial service on 22 November 1997.

FLAG Europe Asia (FEA) was originally a private cable owned by FLAG Telecom. FLAG Europe Asia, FLAG North Asia Loop/REACH North Asia Loop (FNAL/RNAL), FALCON and FLAG Atlantic 1 (FA-1)formed FLAG Global Network. In 2003, Reliance Communications, now branded as Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), acquired FLAG Telecom for $207million. 

FLAG Europe Asia (FEA) lands at the following cable landing stations:

• Porthcurno / Skewjack, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
• Estepona, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
• Palermo, Province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy
• Alexandria, Al Iskandariyah Governorate, Egypt
• Cairo, Egypt
• Suez, As Suways Governorate, Egypt
• Aqaba, Aqaba Governorate, Jordan
• Jeddah, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia
• Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
• Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• Penang, Malaysia, meeting SAFE and SEA-ME-WE 3
• Satun, Satun Province, Thailand
• Songkhla, Songkhla province, Thailand
• Silvermine Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
• Nanhui, Shanghai, China
• Keoje, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea
• Ninomiya, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
• Miura, Kanagawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

The South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4, SMW4) is an approximately 18,800 km submarine cable connecting Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.

The SMW4 cable system consists of two fiber pairs, with intial design capacity of 1.28Tbps, upgraded to 4.6Tbps in 2015.

The SMW4 cable system was ready for service on December 13, 2005.

The SMW4 project costs about US$500 million, supplier by ASN and Fujitsu jointly.

The SMW4 Consortium comprises 16 telecom operators:

• Algérie Télécom, Algeria
• Bharti Infotel Limited, India
• Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), Bangladesh
• CAT Telecom Public Company Limited, Thailand
• Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (ETISALAT), UAE
• France Telecom, France
• MCI, United States
• Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Pakistan
• Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Singapore
• Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT), Sri Lanka
• Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Saudi Arabia
• Telecom Egypt (TE), Egypt
• Telecom Italia Sparkle S.p.A., Italy
• Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Malaysia
• Tunisie Telecom, Tunisia
• Tata Communications, India

The SMW4 cable system has 4 segments:

• S1 - Tuas to Mumbai
• S2 - Mumbai to Suez
• S3 - Suez to Alexandria
• S4 - Alexandria to Marseille

Tthe SMW4 cable system lands at the following 17 cable landing stations:

1. Marseille, France
2. Annaba, Algeria
3. Bizerte, Tunisia
4. Palermo, Italy
5. Alexandria, Egypt
6. Cairo, Egypt (overland)
7. Suez, Egypt (overland
8. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
9. Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
10. Karachi, Pakistan
11. Mumbai, India
12. Colombo, Sri Lanka
13. Chennai, India
14. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
15. Satun, Thailand
16. Melaka, Malaysia
17. Tuas, Singapore

SEACOM is a 17,000 km (11,000 mi) submarine cable connecting South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Djibouti, France and India. The SEACOM cable system was ready for service on 23 July 2009, supplied by SubCom. 

SEACOM Cable System was upgraded to 1.5Tbps capacity in 2018.

Cable Landing Stations:

• Mtunzini, South Africa, in a partnership with Neotel as landing party in South Africa and extending to Neotel data centre in Midrand, Johannesburg
• Mombasa, Kenya
• Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
• Maputo, Mozambique
• YAC A CLS, Djibouti
• Zafaranan, Egypt
• Abu Talat, Egypt
• Marseille, France
• Mumbai, India

The SEACOM cable system is variously described as a $600 million investment. The initial private investment in the SEACOM project was US$375 million: $75 million from the developers, $150 million from private South African investors, and $75 million as a commercial loan from Nedbank (South Africa). The remaining $75 million was provided by Industrial Promotion Services (IPS), which is the industrial and infrastructure arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. The IPS investment was funded by $15 million in equity, and a total of $60.4 million in debt from the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund and the FMO.

Current ownership structure of SEACOM is as follows: 30% IPS, 30% Remgro, 15% Sanlam, 15% Convergence Partners, and 10% Brian Herlihy.

SEACOM and TGN-EA are a common cable in some segments. SEACOM represents the East African portion of the system as well as two fiber pairs between Egypt and India. Tata Communications TGN-EA  has two fiber pairs from Egypt to India and the branch to Jeddah. Both SEACOM and Tata Communications TGN EA have one fiber pair on TE North for connectivity across Egypt to Europe.

South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 (Sea-Me-We3 or SMW3) is a submarine cable linking 39 cable landing stations in 33 countries and 4 continents, including Asia, Astralia, Africa and Europe. Sea-Me-We 3 (SMW3) is the longest submarine cable system in the world with a total length of 39,000 km.

Sea-Me-We 3 (SMW3) cable system was supplied by ASN and Fujitsu and officially put into service on September 30, 1999.

The SMW3 Consortium comprises 92 telecom operators.

Sea-Me-We 3 (SMW3) cable system consists of two fiber pairs in its trunk, designed with 8*STM-16 DWDM technology which was the then state-of-the-air technology when it was designed in 1996.

In 2006, 2nd 10G Upgrade was completed which increased Sea-Me-We-3 system capacity significantly.

In May 2007, Sea-Me-We-3 completed the 3rd 10G Upgrade with 48 wavelengths per fiber pair.

In December 2009, the 4th 10G Upgrade increased WDM channels from 48 to 64 per fibre pair.

In 2015, the 5th Upgrade realized capacity expansion with 100G DWDM technologies.

Sea-Me-We3 (SMW3) lands at the following 39 cable landing stations in 33 countries:

1. Norden, Germany
2. Oostende, Belgium
3. Goonhilly, United Kingdom
4. Penmarch, France
5. Sesimbra, Portugal
6. Tetuan, Morocco
7. Mazara del Vallo, Italy
8. Chania, Greece
9. Marmaris, Turkey
10. Yeroskipou, Cyprus
11. Alexandria, Egypt
12. Suez, Egypt
13. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
14. Djibouti, Djibouti
15. Muscat, Oman
16. Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
17. Karachi, Pakistan
18. Mumbai, India
19. Kochi, India
20. Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka
21. Pyapon, Myanmar
22. Satun, Thailand
23. Penang, Malaysia
24. Medan, Indonesia
25. Tuas, Singapore
26. Jakarta, Indonesia
27. Perth, Australia
28. Mersing, Malaysia
29. Tungku, Brunei
30. Da Nang, Vietnam
31. Batangas, Philippines
32. Taipa, Macau
33. Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong, China
34. Shantou, China
35. Fangshan, Taiwan
36. Toucheng, Taiwan
37. Shanghai, China
38. Geoje, South Korea
39. Okinawa, Japan

For the capacity pricing, Sea-Me-We 3 introduced an innovative Price Incentive Scheme based on the MIU*km concept. For each MIU (i.e. a 2 Mbit/s circuit) between two landing points, the price is equal to the geographical distance between these two points (subject to a minimum of 550 km and to a maximum of 10,000 km) multiplied by the unit cost for a MIU*km. For IRU purchase, the price will be at a Fixed Price of USD50 per miu*km for circuit within any segment in Sea-Me-We 3.

Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) is a 10,000km submarine cable system along the east coast of Africa, with 9 landing stations in Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa, provides a backhaul system for at least 12 landlocked countries, enabling wide coverage in the East African region. 

The EASSy cable system was ready for service in July 2010.

The EASSy cable system comprises two fiber pairs, initially designed with 68*10Gbps DWDM technology. The design capacity was upgraded to 4.72 Tbps in 2011 with ASN's 40Gbps wavelength technology, further upgraded to more than 10Tbps with ASN's 100Gbps technology in 2014. The system has deployed a latest upgrade with Ciena's GeoMesh Extreme solutions to reach a system capacity of 36Tbps.  

The EASSy project costs an initial investment at approximately US$ 235 million. 

The EASSy Consortium consists of 18 members, including Bharti Airtel, Botswana Fibre Networks, BT, Comores Telecom, Djibouti Telecom, Etisalat, Mauritius Telecom, MTN Group, Neotel, Orange, Saudi Telecom, Sudan Telecom Company, Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (ZANTEL), Telkom Kenya, Telkom South Africa, Telma (Telecom Malagasy), Vodacom DRC, WIOCC, Zambia Telecom. 

According to Many Possibilities, EASSy is 90% African-owned although that ownership is underwritten by a substantial investment by Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) including World Bank/IFC, EIB, AfDB, AFD, and KfW. Total DFI investment is apparently $70.7 million, with $18.2 million coming from IFC, 14.5 million from AfDB. This is a smaller amount than the originally advertised $120 million investment from DFIs.

South African investors in EASSY include Telkom/Vodacom ($18.9 million) , MTN ($40.3 million),  and Neotel (~$11 million). MTN is  the largest operator investor in the EASSy project. Telkom is the landing party and owner of the Mtunzini cable landing station in South Africa. 

WIOCC is the largest shareholder in the EASSy Consortium and owns 29% of the EASSy cable system.

AfDB funding was a vital element in the setting up of the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), which was established as a “Special Purpose Vehicle” (SPV) and largest shareholder in the EASSy submarine cable system.

WIOCC consortium members include: Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, Dalkom Somalia, Djibouti Telecom, Gilat Satcom Nigeria Ltd., the Government of Seychelles, the Lesotho Telecommunications Authority, ONATEL Burundi, Telkom Kenya Ltd., Telecommunicacões de Mocambique (TDM), U-COM Burundi, Uganda Telecom Ltd., Zantel Tanzania and most recently, TelOne Zimbabwe and Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company (LPTIC).

The South Africa Far East (SAFE) cable is a 13,500 km optical fiber submarine cable linking South Africa, Mauritius, La Réunion, India and Malaysia, ready for service in April 2002.

The SAFE Consortium includes Angola Telecom, AT&T, BT, Camtel, China Telecom, Chunghwa Telecom, Cote d’Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecommunications Company, KPN, KT, Maroc Telecom, Mauritius Telecom, NATCOM (Nigeria), Neotel, OPT, Orange, PCCW, Proximus, SingTel, Sonatel, Sprint, Tata Communications, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telecom Namibia, Telekom Malaysia, Telkom South Africa, Telstra, Telxius, Verizon, Vodafone, inclusive of members in SAT3/WACS. 

The SAFE cable system was supplied by Tyco Submarine Systems (now SubmCom).

The SAFE cable lands at the following cable landing stations:

• Mtunzini, South Africa
• Melkbosstrand, South Africa
• St. Paul, La Reunion
• Baie Jacotet, Mauritius
• Cochin, India
• Penang, Malaysia

The SAFE cable system consists of two fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 10Gbps, and upgraded to 130Gbps.

SAFE and SAT-3 / WASC are commonly considered as one cable system SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, forming a 28000km submarine cable linking Europe, Africa and Asia.

At the Melkbosstrand cable landing station in South Africa, the SAT-3 / WASC and the SAFE are interconnected.

The SAT-3 / WASC cable spans approxiamately 14,500 km connecting South Africa, West Africa and Europe, northwards to Sesimbra in Portugal, with a total capacity of 120 Gbps.

RJK (Russia-Japan-Korea) is a submarine cable system linking Russia, Japan and Korea. The RJK cable consists of two fiber pairs, stretches of 1762 Km, with three cable landing station:

• Nakhodka, Russia, Rostelecom;
• Naoetsu, Japan, KDDI;
• Pusan, Korea, KT.

The RJK cable system was designed with 560 Mbps PDH system over each fiber pair. The RJK cable system began operation in January 1995 and retired in 2008. 

The RJCN (or Russia-Japan Cable Network) is a 1800-km submarine cable system with diverse cable routes connecting Japan and Russia, with a design capacity of 640 Gbps. The RJCN was ready for service on September 5 2008. By interconnecting with the Transit Europe Asia (TEA) terrestrial cable, the RJCN and the TEA can offer the shortest latency (approximately 196 ms) between Tokyo and London. And 10 Gbps transparent wavelength is available on the RJCN and TEA route.

The Hokkaido-Sakhalin Cable System (HSCS) is a 500km undersea cable system between Ishikari, Hokkaido in Japan and Nevelsk, Sakhalin in Russia, jointly built by TTK and NTT, ready for service on July 3, 2008

The HSCS has a inital design capacity of 640 Gbps.

In 2018, the HSCS was upgraded with 200 Gbps DWDM technology for a total system capacity up to 5.4 Tbps, and activated the first 100 Gbps channel between Tokyo and Amsterdam. 

With the seamless combination of the HSCS and TTK's terrestrial backbone across Russia to Europe, it forms a low latency route, Europe-Russia-Japan (ERJ), with latency (RTD) of 144ms between Tokyo and Amsterdan.

The Europe India Gateway (EIG) is a 15,000km international fiber optic submarine cable system that links 12 countries across 3 continents, including

• the United Kingdom,
• Portugal,
• Gibraltar,
• Monaco,
• France,
• Libya,
• Egypt,
• Saudi Arabia,
• Djibouti,
• Oman,
• United Arab Emirates, and
• India.

The EIG consortium consists of 16 telecommunications carriers, including AT&T, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, BT, Djibouti Telecom, du, Gibtelecom, Libya International Telecommunications Company, MTN, Omantel, Portugal Telecom, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telkom South Africa, Verizon and Vodafone.

The EIG cable system was originally supplied by TE SubCom and ASN, TE SubCom supplying segments from Egypt South (Suez), Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, UAE and India (Mumbai), ASN supplying segments from Egypt North (Alexander) to the UK (London). The total cost of the EIG cable system is about US$700million.

The EIG cable system has three fiber pairs in most of its submarine segments and is deployed with 2+2 fiber pairs crossing Egypt. For more details, please refer to Europe India Gateway (EIG) Cable System Connectivity.

The EIG cable system was ready for service in February 2011, with an initial designed system capacity of 3.84Tbps, based on 10Gbps DWDM technology. There were upgrades on EIG in 2015 and 2020 respectively, deploying 100Gbps DWDM technology supplied by Ciena.

The IMEWE ( India-Middle East-Western Europe) submarine cable is a 12091km submarine cable system which links India & Europe via Middle.

The IMEWE cable system consists of three fiber pairs, with two fiber pairs on an express path, plus a terrestrial link connecting the cities of Alexandria and Suez in Egypt. The initial design capacity of IMEWE cable system is 3.84Tbps, as a 10Gbps DWDM system. 

The IMEWE cable system includes 10 cable landing stations in eight countries: India, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Italy and France.

The IMEWE consortium comprises of nine major telecom companies: Bharti Airtel (India), Etisalat (UAE), France Telecom-Orange (France), OGERO (Lebanon), Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (Pakistan), Saudi Telecom Company STC (Saudi Arabia), Telecom Egypt (Egypt), Telecom Italia Sparkle (Italy), and Tata Communications (India). 

The IMEWE consortium signed the Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) and the Supply Contract on 5th Feb 2008, with a total porject cost of approximately US$480million. The Supply Contract was awarded to Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN). ASN was supported by NEC as its subcontractor to supply and install the wet plant from Mumbai to Jeddah.

The IMEWE cable system was ready for service on 11th Dec, 2010.

In 2012, the IMEWE cable system was upgraded with 40Gbps DWDM supplied by Mitsubishi Electric.

In 2016, the IMEWE cable system completed an upgrade with 100 Gbps DWDM supplied by Mitsubishi Electric, increasing its system capacity to 5.6Tbps.

In Oct., 2019, Ciena completed the upgrade of IMEWE cable system, using Ciena’s WaveLogic Ai technology to deploy 200Gbps per wave on the majority of the IMEWE digital line section.

TGN-Eurasia, or TGN-EA, is a 9,280 km cable system linking Mumbai in India with Marseille in France, passing through Egypt, with a branching unit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  TGN-EA offers route diversity through a terrestrial route in Egypt without touching the Alexandria CLS & the Suez CLS.

TGN-EA cable system consists of two fiber, with an initial design capacity upto 1.28 Tbps, and one fiber pair express route between Mumbai and Marseille.

In Egypt, TGN-EA terrestrial paths run between the Abu Talat CLS and the Zafarana CLS. Tata Communications partners with Telecom Egypt for TGN-EA landing at the Abu Talat CLS and the Zafarana CLS and terrestrial paths between the cable landing stations, dropping TGN-EA capacity in Egypt for connectivity into Egypt and also extending the reach to countries like Libya, Cyprus, Sudan, Jordan, Syria etc through Telecom Egypt.

Tata Communications also partners with Mobily and other operaters for TGN-EA branching into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, extending the TGN-EA cable systems into the Middle East, and establishing the TGN-Gulf cable system.

TGN-EA forms a part of Tata Global Network's (TGN) together with other cable systems like TIC, TGN Intra-Asia, TGN Pacific, TGN Atlantic and European ring, enables PoP to PoP connectivity allowing customers to terminate capacity at Mumbai or at Marseille and also at other TGN PoPs 

TGN-EA cable system offers low latency routes, with  round-trip-delay (RTD) of 92 ms between Mumbai and Marseille,  52 ms between Mumbai and Jeddah, 52 ms between Marseille and Jeddah.

TGN-EA cable system is a private cable owned by Tata Communications and supplied by SubCom. TGN-EA cable system was ready for service in April 2012.

TGN-EA and SEACOM are a common cable in some segments. In addition to its East African portion, SEACOM has two fiber pairs between Egypt and India, on a common cable with TGN-EA. TGN-EA represents another two fiber pairs from Egypt to India and the branch to Jeddah (i.e., TGN-Gulf). Both SEACOM and TGN-EA have one fiber pair on TE North for connectivity across Egypt to Europe.

The Middle East North Africa (MENA) Submarine Cable System (MENA-SCS) is a 8800km submarine communications cable system connects Italy, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and India. The MENA-SCS is now a private cable owned by Telecom Egypt.

The MENA submarine cable rans across Egypt via terrestrial parth between the Abu Talat CLS and the Zafarana CLS, avoiding the Alexandria CLS & the Suez CLS.

The MENA submarine cable system consists of six fibre pairs, initially designed with 96*10Gbps DWDM technology and a total system capacity of 5.76Tbps, upgradable to 100Gbps technology

The MENA submarine cable system was ready for service in Novmember 2014.

The MENA submarine cable system was a private cable owned by MENA-SCS, a 100% subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology in Egypt. In 2014, MENA-SCS signed IRU agreement with Telecom Egypt to acquire terrestrial fiber pairs crossing Egypt, between Zaarafana on the Red Sea and Abu Talat on the Mediterranean for 20 years.

In September 2018, Telecom Egypt (TE) acquired MENA SCS from Orascom Investment Holding (OIH) for $90 million, through its 50% owned subsidiary Egyptian International Submarine Cable Company (EISCC) at a total value of US$90 million, including USD40mn for the equity value of MENA Cable System and USD50mn for its outstanding debt. Meanwhile, Telecom Egypt also acquired 50% of EISCC for US$15 million. 

After the acquisition, the MENA submarine cable system became the second private cable of Telecom Egypt, in addition to TE North.

Telecom Egypt signed with India's Airtel Company a memorandum of understanding to enhance cooperation in the maritime cable domain.

Prior to acquisition by Telecom Egypt, Indian operator Bharti Airtel enterd into an exclusive agreement with Orascom to acquire MENA-SCS in 2016. The deal was replaced by an IRU agreement between Bharti Airtel and Telecom Egypt.

In August 2018, Airtel and Telecom Egypt announced strategic partnership for global submarine cable systems. Later in October 2018, Telecom Egypt signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel that granted the latter IRUs (Indefeasible Right of Use) on the MENA Cable System and TE North Cable Systems. Additionally, Airtel purchased from Telecom Egypt large capacities on a long-term basis on SMW5 & AAE1. The deal between Telecom Egypt and Bharti Airtel amounts about US$ 90 million for IRU and additional 4% of annual O&M charge over the lifetime of the cable systems (min. of 15 years), which enabled Telecom Egypt to recover almost all cash flows spent on the MENA Cable acquisition. 

Additionally, Gulf Bridge International (GBI) partners with the MENA Submarine Cable System to provide onward connectivity from Oman to India and Western Europe across Egypt. GBI owns the GBI Cable System towards India and has provided one fiber pair of the two to MENA.  MENA Submarine Cable System owns the MENA cable towards Egypt/Italy and has provided one fiber of the two to GBI.

The Gulf Bridge International Cable System (GBI Cable System, or GBICS) is a private submarine cable system connecting the Gulf countries together and provide onward connectivity to the rest of the world.

The GBI Cable System is privately owned by Gulf Bridge International, established in Qatar in December 2008 with an initial investment of $445 million.

The GBI Cable System is designed with a self-healing core ring in the Gulf, with double cable landings at the major terminals of Qatar and Fujairah (UAE) and branched landings in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Oman, and onward connectivity to landing in India and Europe as well.

Gulf Bridge International contracts with the following partners as landing parties in corresponding countries:

• Omantel, Oman
• du, UAE,
• Batelco,  Bahrain
• Vodafone Qatar, Qatar
• Ooredoo(formerly Qtel), Qatar
• Kuwait Ministry of Communications, Kuwait
• Saudi Telecom Corporation (STC), Saudi Arabia
• Telecommunication Infrastructure Company of I.R.Iran (TIC), Iran 
• Iraq Telecommunications & Post Company (ITPC) , Iraq. 
• Sify Technologies Limited, India

The GBI Cable System is the first submarine cable landing in Iraq, at the cable landing station in Al Faw, partnered with the state-owned Iraq Telecommunications & Post Company (ITPC).  GBI cable network reaches Europe through Al Faw and terrestrial cables across Iraq and Turkey.

Gulf Bridge International contracts with Telecommunication Infrastructure Company of I.R.Iran (TIC) to land the GBI cable in Iran, with onward connectivity to many central Asian countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azarbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and European nations.

The GBI cable system lands at:

• Al Faw, Iraq
• Kuwait City, Kuwait
• Bushehr, Iran
• Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia
• Al Hidd, Bahrain
• Al Khor, Qatar (Vodafone Qatar CLS)
• Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
• Al Seeb, Oman
• Mumbai, India

The GBI Cable System was launched in Feb. 2012 with intra-regional connetivity in Gulf, and late 2014 for the whole system.

Gulf Bridge International partners with the MENA Submarine Cable System to provide on connectivity from Oman to India and Western Europe across Egypt. GBI owns the GBI Cable System towards India and has provided one fiber pair of the two to MENA.  MENA Submarine Cable System owns the MENA cable towards Egypt/Italy and has provided one fiber of the two to GBI. The MENA submarine cable system was delayed due to permitting issues in Egypt, was not completed until November 2014 after purchasing terrestrial fiber pairs IRU from Telecom Egypt to connect Zaarafana cable landing station and the Abu Talat cable landing station. The MENA cable was acquired by Telecom Egypt in 2018.

GBI/MENA cable landing station in Mumbai is owned and operated by Sify Technologies Limited. In March 2018, Bharti Airtel acquired huge capacity on GBI Cable System between Mumbai to Milan and its upgrade rights.

GBI also extended its IP network in 2016, to connect to Singapore, Datamena, Smarthub, Frankfurt, London and Amsterdam.

GBI also acquired a stake in BBG extending its reach into Asia.

Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) is a 25,000km submarine cable from South East Asia to Europe across Egypt, connecting Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia,Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France.

The AAE-1 cable system terminates at diversified carrier neutral data centers in major regional hubs, including Telecom House in Hong Kong, Equinix SG3 and Global Switch in Singapore, and InterXion MRS1 in Marseille, France, and connects Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong via diverse terrestrial routes across Thailand. These unique features enable AAE-1 to deliver one of the lowest-latency routes between Hong Kong, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

The AAE-1 cable system was initially designed with 100Gbps technology for a system capacity of more than 40 Tbps on 5 fiber pairs. 

The wet plant of AAE-1 cable system was supplied by SubCom for the segments from France to Thailan and NEC for the segments from Thailand to Hong Kong.

The AAE-1 consortium signed the construction and maintenance agreement in Hong Kong on January 27, 2014, and launched the AAE-1 cable system for commerical service in June 2017.

In 2020, AAE-1 consortium upgraded the SLTE with Infinera’s Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE4) technology.

In 2022, AAE-1 consortium upgraded the SLTE with Infinera’s Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE6) coherent 800G solution, to providing in excess of 100 Tbps.

The SEA-ME-WE 5 (SMW5) is a 20,000km submarine cable system connecting 17 countries through Points-of-Presence (POPs) from Singapore to the Middle East to France and Italy in Western Europe, with an initial system design capacity of 24 Tbps over 3 fiber pairs.

The SMW5 cable system has three fiber pairs between Singapore and Egypt, and four fiber pairs crossing Egypt to Europe.

The SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium consists of 19 leading telecom operators, including BSCCL, China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, China Unicom, Djibouti Telecom, Du, Myanmar Post and Telecom, Orange, Ooredoo, Telin, Saudi Telecom, SingTel, Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, Telecom Yemen, Turk Telecom and Transworld. The SMW5 consortium signed the construction and maintenace agreement on March 7, 2014.

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC were awarded the SMW5 supply contracts, Alcatel-Lucent supplied the segments from Sri Lanka to France, while NEC supplied the Singapore to Sri Lanka segment.

The SMW5 cable system was ready for service on December 13, 2016.

In August 2019, the SMW5 cable system completed an ungrade with Ciena's coherent 200G DWDM technology, increasing SMW5 system design capacity to 38Tbps.

The Gulf to Africa (G2A) submarine cable system connects Salalah (Oman) to Bosaso (Puntland, Somalia) and Berbera (Somaliland, Somalia). 

The G2A Consortium comprises Omantel (Oman), Telesom (Somaliland, Somalia), Golis (Puntland, Somalia) and Ethio Telecom (Ethiopia). The G2A cable system is supplied by Xtera.

The G2A cable system comprises two fiber pairs, over a 1,500km subsea segment and a 1,500km terrestrial segment, with a system capacity of 20Tbps using 100G technology.

Arctic Fibre is a three-phase submarine cable project, planned to connect Asia, Canada and Europe through the Arctic Ocean.

Phase 1 – Alaska is a 1200 mile submarine fiber optic cable main trunk line between Nome and Prudhoe Bay.

Phase 2 – Asia, is planned to extend the backbone cable from the Nome branching unit west to Asia, with options for additional branches into Alaska. Phase 2 will create an option for a diverse path out of the United States to Asia.

Phase 3 – Canada-United Kingdom, is intended to extend the subsea system east of the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska branching unit along the Lower Northwest Passage to Canada and on to the United Kingdom. Phase 3 will connect to Northern Canadian communities and will provide a secure low latency route from Europe to Asia, and a diverse route option out of North America to Europe.

The Phase 1 – Alaska has been launched for service since early December 2017.

Quintillion Subsea Holdings LLC (“Quintillion”) acquired the assets of Arctic Fibre  in May 2016.

Quintillion is moving forward with a revised phase 2 project, trying to build the Japan-Washington State Trans-Pacific Cable System (JAWS TPCS).

Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) is initially a 15,000 km submarine cable from Pakistan to France, extended from Pakistan to Singapore for an additional 6,500km, with main trunk landing in Singapore, Pakistan, Kenya, Egypt and France and branches to the Maldives, Malta, Cyprus, etc. 

The PEACE cable system is designed with the latest 200G transmission technology and WSS ROAMD BU technology, which provides the capability to transmit over 16Tbps per fiber pair servicing growing regional capacity needs.

This PEACE cable system substantially reduces network latency by adopting shortest direct route connectivity, providing cost-effective capacity in an economically growing region and enhancing route diversity between Asia, Africa and Europe.

PEACE is privately owned and invested by PEACE CABLE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CO., LIMITED, a subsidiary of China-based HENGTONG Group,  and supplied by HMN Tech (formerly Huawei Marine). 

Cyta deploys its private ARSINOE cable system connecting Cyprus with France and Egypt, as part of the PEACE cable system.

GO deploys its private LaValette cable system connecting Malta with France and Egypt, as part of the PEACE cable system.

Zain Global Connect (ZGC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zain Group, deploys its private Jeddah to Marseille (J2M) cable system connects Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Marseille, France, as a subsystem of the PEACE cable system.

PEACE-MED, the Mediterranean segment of the PEACE cable system, including ARSINOE and LaValette, has been ready for service as of March 28, 2022.

PEACE cable system comprising the Pakistan-Egypt-Kenya segment and the Egypt-France segment went live on December 22, 2022, 

The IOX Cable System spans about 8,850 km, connects Mauritius and Rodrigues to the East Coast of South Africa on one side and the East Coast of India on the other. The IOX Cable System consists of 4 fiber pairs in its trunk, with design capacity of 13.5 Tbps per fiber pair and 54 Tbps for the whole system. The IOX Cable system will reinforce Mauritius as a hub in sub-Saharan Africa.

The project promoter is IOX Cable Ltd., a company registered in Mauritius.

Alcatel Submarine Networks has been selected to supply and install the IOX cable system, with contract in force in October 2017.

The IOX Cable System was expected to be the first open cable system in the region and be completed in 2019. But it was suspended as the project promoter did not have the support to carry out the project. 

Mauritius Telecom has taken over and revived part of the IOX cable project as a new T3 submarine cable project, connecting Mauritius to South Africa, with branching units to Reunion Island and Rodrigues.

The Mauritius and Rodrigues Submarine Cable System (MARS) is a 700km undersea cable connecting the Indian Ocean Islands of Rodrigues and Mauritius.

The MARS cable lands in:

• Baie Jacotet, Mauritius
• Grand Baie (Rodrigues), Mauritius

The MARS cable system is built by PCCW Global and Mauritius Telecom, supplied by Huawei Marine, with a design capacity of 16Tbit/s. 

The MARS cable system was ready for service in February 2019.

The Africa-1 submarine cable system spans 10,000km, initially landings in Kenya, Djibouti, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France. The Africa-1 cable system will also land in Sudan, cross Egypt through diverse new terrestrial routes on the way to France, and further connect other countries in the Mediterranean such as Algeria, Tunisia and Italy.

This Africa-1 cable consists of 8 fiber pairs, to equipp with ASN 1620 Softnode transmission equipment, featuring high performance 200/300/400 Gbps advanced coherent XWAV line cards.

The Africa-1 consortium signed the Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) on 11 December 2018 in Dubai. Currently, the Africa-1 consortium comprises Etisalat, G42, Mobily, Pakistan Telecommunication Company and Telecom Egypt (with other parties expected to join soon). 

The Africa-1 cable system is supplied by ASN, to be ready for service by the end of 2023.

The Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1(DARE1) submarine cable system connects Djibouti (Djibouti), Bosaso (Somalia), Mogadishu (Somalia) and Mombasa (Kenya). With a finalized route length of 4,854km, DARE1 cable system delivers up to 36 Tbps of capacity to East Africa.

The DARE1 cable system is designed with a three-fibre-pair trunk, with each fibre pair delivering capacity of 120 channels at 100 Gbps.  The Bosaso branch of the DARE1 cable is of 108 km and two fiber pairs.

The DARE1 consortium is currently composed of Djibouti Telecom, Somtel, Hormuud Telecom and Telkom Kenya as landing partner in Kenya.

The initial investment cost of the DARE1 cable system is about US$86million.

The DARE1 cable system is supplied by SubCom. 

The India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) connects Mumbai to Europe and interconnects with the India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) in Mumbai to reach Singapore.

IEX lands in the Middle East and Africa (Oman, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and Egypt) as well as through the Mediterranean Sea with landings in France, Italy and Greece.

The IEX cable is built by Reliance Jio Infocomm and is expected to be operational in early 2023.

For more information, please refer to the India-Asia-Xpress (IAX).

The East African Marine Systems (TEAMS) is a 5,000Km subsea cable connecting Mombasa in Kenya to Fujairah in the UAE, with two fiber pairs and upgradable system capacity of 5.6Tbps.

TEAMS cable system is 85% owned by TEAMs (Kenya) Ltd and 15% owned by Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  

The shareholders of TEAMS (Kenya) Ltd includes:

• 20% - Government of Kenya
• 32% - Safaricom Ltd
• 23% - Telkom Kenya
• 10% - Kenya Data Networks Ltd
• 6% - Wananchi Group
• 5% - Jamii Telecom Ltd
• 1.8% - Access Kenya Group
• 1.2% - BCS Group

Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN) was awarded the $79 million contract to supply and construct the TEAMS cable system in October 2007.

The TEAMS cable system was completed in August 2009 and went live for commercial service on 1st October 2009.

LION (Lower Indian Ocean NetWork) is a 1000km submarine cable connecting Madagascar, Réunion and Mauritius, ready for service in March, 2010.

The LION cable system consists of two fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 1.28Tbps (2*64*10Gbps).

The LION consortium comprises Orange Madagascar, Mauritius Telecom and France Telecom S.A.. Overall, the LION project cost an estimated US$37 million. 

LION2 (Lower Indian Ocean NetWork II) is a 2700km submarine cable network connecting LION to Mayotte and Mombasa, Kenya. The LION2 is an extension of the LION cable system.

The LION2 consortium includes France Telecom-Orange and its subsidiaries Mauritius Telecom, Orange Madagascar and Telkom Kenya, Emtel, Societe Reunionnaise du Radiotelephone and STOI Internet.

Telkom Kenya operates a cable landing station in Nyali, Mombasa for the LION2 cable system.

The LION2 cable system costs about $76 million with $42 million coming directly from France Telecom.

The LION2 cable system was ready for service in April 2012, with an initial design capacity of 1.28Tbps  (2*64*10Gbps).

TE North (Telecom Egypt North) is a 3634km submarine cable linking Egypt and France, with a branching unit to Cyprus, ready for service in 2010, supplied by ASN.

The TE North Cable System consists of 8 fiber pairs, with initial design capacity of 10Tbps, or 1.28Tbps per fiber pair, upgraded to 20Tbps with 64x40Gbps DWDM technology in 2011.

The TE North Cable System lands at:

1. InterXion MSR1, Marseille, France
2. Abu Talat 1, Alexandria Governorate, Egypt
3. Pentaskhinos, Cyprus
4. Annaba, Algeria

The total cost of the TE North is about US$155 million, including US$125 million for the segment from Egypt to France and US$30 million for the extension to Cyprus.

TE North is the first submarine cable to land at the Abu Talat Cable Landing Station, in the west of Alexandria CLS which previously served as Egypt’s international communications gateway.

SEACOM, Tata Communications' TGN-EA and CYTA's ALEXANDROS, and Algerie Telecom's Medex cable systems are customers of Telecom Egypt and share fiber pairs with TE North.

TE North shares fiber pairs to SEACOM and TGN-EA from Abu Talat CLS to Marseille CLS. Both SEACOM and TGN-EA  have one fiber pair on TE North for connectivity from Egypt to Europe.

TE North shares fiber pairs with ALEXANDROS submarine cable system, one fiber pair from Pentaskhinos CLS to Abu Talat CLS, and one fiber pair from Pentaskhinos CLS to Marseille CLS. The ALEXANDROS submarine cable system is a private cable owned by Cyta of Cyprus.

TE North shares on fiber pair to Algerie Telecom's Medex cable system, which was ready for service in February, 2019.

For more infomration about submarine cables crossing Egypt and the cost of Egypt-crossing, please visit A Study on Submarine Cables Crossing Egypt and their Costs.

HAWK is a 3400km submarine cable system connecting Egpyt to France, with a branching unit to Cyprus, ready for service in 2011, privately owned by Global Cloud Xchange (GCX)

The HAWK Cable System is designed with 20Tbps system capacity and two fiber pairs, one express fiber pair connecting Marseille CLS in France and Alexandria CLS in Egypt and another fiber pair with a branch to Yeroskipos CLS in Cyprus. Cyprus' private operator PrimeTel owns and operates the Yeroskipos CLS.

PrimeTel, established in Cyprus in 2003, operates the only private island-wide fiber optic network alternative to Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunications Authority), a corporate body wholly owned by the government of the Republic of Cyprus. PrimeTel owns and operates an independent, privately owned submarine cable landing station in Yeroskipos, for the landing of HAWK cable. 

The HAWK cable system that was built by Reliance Globalcom (now Global Cloud Xchange, GCX) to initially set up the world’s first Mediterranean Gateway and Hub at Cyprus. Hawk was initially launched on the Marseille-Cyprus segment to provide adequate bandwidth for local service providers who were concentrating on meeting high speed connectivity needs of emerging broadband internet users in Cyprus. 

The HAWK cable system integrates with GCX's FALCON cable system in Suez, Egypt, extends connectivity from India to Europe, offers end-to-end connectivity between London, Paris, Frankfurt, Marseille, Cyprus, Egypt, Mumbai, etc.

Aletar is a 787 km submarine cable system connecting Tartous in Syria to Alexandria in Egypt. 

The Aletar cable system consists of two fibre pairs with eight optical amplifiers, with a design capacity of 5 Gbps, ready for service on April 7, 1997.

The Aletar consortium comprises Egyptian  Telecom. Management(Telecom Egypt, 46.875%), Syrian Telecom. Est.(46.875%),Lebanese Ministry of Telecom (6.25%).L.ebanese Ministry Of Telecom.

Lebanese Ministry Of Telecom.Lebanese Ministry Of Telecom.ebanese Ministry Of Telecom Le banese Ministry Of TelecomLebanese Ministry Of TelecomLebanese Ministry Of Telecom.

LEV is a 2600km submarince cable system in the Mediterranean Sea linking Italy, Cyprus and Israel.

The LEV cable system has a design transmission capacity of 20 Gbps, ready for service in March 1999.

The LEV cable consists of 2 fiber pairs. Each fiber pair has the initial design capacity of 8 wavelengths of 2.5G. The LEV cable system forms a ring pretection among the cable landing station, each 2 landing points have exactly one fiber pair connecting them, forming one fiber ring with total capacity of 20Gbps.

The LEV cable system lands at the following stations:

• Tel Aviv, Israel
• Yeroskipou, Cyprus
• Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, Italy
• Catania, Sicily, Italy (terrestrial extension from Mazara del Vallo to Catania)

The Melting Pot Indianoceanic Submarine System (METISS) is a fibre optic cable system connecting Mauritius to South Africa, consists of 3,200 km trunk from Mauritius to South Africa and branching units to Reunion Island and Madagascar, with design capacity of 24Tbps.

The METISS consortium comprises Canal+ Télécom, CEB Fibernet, Emtel, Zeop, SRR (SFR) Telma. The METISS consortium has contracted Liquid Telecom to act as the Landing Party in South Africa, responsible for the installation of the terrestrial component of the METISS cable system and the operational aspects of the system in South Africa.

In South Africa, the METISS cable lands to a beach manhole at Pipeline Beach in Amanzimtoni, in the south of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The Amanzimtoni cable landing staion is an existing faclilites owned by Liquid Telecom South Africa which hosts and manages the METISS submarine cable and provides backhaul to carrier neutral Teraco data center.

The METISS cable system is supplied by ASN. The project costs about EUR 50 million.

The METISS cable system has been in-service since March 2021.

The Blue and Raman cable systems are Google's latest investments in subsea cables.

The Blue Cable System connects Italy, Greece and Israel, and the Raman Cable System connects Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and India. 

Both of the Blue and Raman cable systems consists of 16 fiber optic pairs, and are expected to be ready for service in 2024.

Google collaborates with Telecom Italia Sparkle, Omantel and others on the Blue and Raman cable projects. 

In fact, Sparkle's BlueMed cable shares fiber pairs and wet segment with the Blue cable system.

ALEXANDROS submarine cable system is a private cable wholly owned by Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunications Authority), a corporate body wholly owned by the Republic of Cyprus. 

The ALEXANDROS submarine cable system consists of a fibre pair between Cyprus-Egypt and a fibre pair between Cyprus-France, implemented through Telecom Egypt’s submarine cable system TE North, connecting Egypt with France, initially designed with 96x10Gbps DWDM technology, ready for service in 2010.

The ALEXANDROS cable spans about 3600km, and lands at:

• Pentaskhinos landing station in Cyprus,
• Abu Talat cable landing station in Egypt, and
• Marseilles in France

The ALEXANDROS subsystem is the result of the strategic co-operation agreement between Cyta and Telecom Egypt (TE), according to which Cyta participates on an ownership basis in the ΤΕ submarine cable system TE North, connecting Egypt with France. The TE North cable system has been constructed by Alcatel-Lucent and utilises eight fibre pairs with total capacity of more than 10Tbps. The TE North cable system is equipped with branching units which enable it to be extended to selected countries in the Mediterranean, thus creating a communication bridge between these countries, Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as business opportunities in the Mediterranean and Eurasia. Under the agreement, the TE North cable system has been extended to Cyprus via a direct branch and Cyta has acquired separate fibre pairs between Cyprus-Egypt and Cyprus-France, each with 96x10Gbps total capacity. The agreement also allows for an option of extending ALEXANDROS subsystem to Greece.

The Europe-Persia Express Gateway (EPEG) is a 10,000km fibre optic cable system providing Eurasia connectivity between Europe and the Middle East, bypassing Egypt. The EPEG cable offers route diversity from Frankfurt in Germany, across Slovakia and Czech Republic on one route, Austria and Hungary on the other route to reach Kyiv in Ukraine, through Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and the Persian Gulf to Barka in the Sultanate of Oman.

The EPEG consortium comprises Rostelekom, Vodafone (formerly Cable & Wireless), the Iranian Telecommunications Infrastructure Company (TIC) and Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel).

• Vodafone is responsible for segments from Frankfurt in Germany, to the Ukraine-Russia border. In Frankfurt, the EPEG cable system is terminated at ancotel's Kleyer 90 carrier neutral data center.
• Rostelecom together with the Azerbaijani partner DeltaTelecom is responsible for segments the Ukraine-Russia border to the Russia-Azerbaijan border and through Azerbaijan to the Azerbaijan-Iran border.
• The TIC is responsible for the segment from the Azerbaijan-Iran border (Astara) to Jask on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
• Omantel builds the submarine segments to Barka cable landing station as part its OMRAN/EPEG cable system, and the extension to Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman.

The EPEG cable system offers a low latency route between Frankfurt and Barka, Muscat, with 9,430 km and RTD of 91.97 ms over the short route, and RTD of 98.51ms over the long route.

The EPEG cable system has an initial capacity of 540 Gbps (54*10Gbps), and design capacity up to 3.2Tbps. 

The total cost of the EPEG cable system is about US$200 million.

The EPEG was put in operation in December 2012.

2Africa is one of the largest subsea projects in the world, connecting 46 cable landing stations in 33 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, with a cable length of 45,000km.

When it was first announce in May 2020, 2Africa was 37,000 km in length, connecting 23 countries, including 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. In August 2021, 2Africa added 4 branches to extend connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands and Angola and bring a new landing to south-east Nigeria. Later in September 2021, 2Africa officially announced the extension of 2Africa Pearls, extending to the Gulf, Pakistan and India, connecting 46 cable landing stations in 33 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, with a cable length of 45,000km.

2Africa is now the longest subsea cable in the world, followed by SMW3 of 39,000km.

The 2Africa cable system implements a new technology, SDM1 from ASN, incorporating optical switching technology to enable flexible management of bandwidth. Cable burial depth has also been increased by 50% compared to older systems, and cable routing will avoid locations of known subsea disturbance, all helping to ensure the highest levels of availability.

2Africa will be the first time Wavelength Selective Switching (WSS)-ROADM is utilized in Africa, allowing for more flexible capacity management. 2Africa is also the first system of its size to make use of an innovative aluminum conductor for submarine cable systems.

The 2Africa cable system has a design capacity of up to 180Tbps on 16 fiber pairs on key parts of the system.

The 2Africa consortium comprises China Mobile International, Djibouti Telecom, Meta (Facebook), MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Saudi Telecom Company (stc), Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. 

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been awarded to build the 2Africa cable.

The 2Africa cable system is expected to go live in 2023/4.

The Trans Europe Asia System (TEAS) is a new generation of data transport infrastructure which will serve the rapidly growing requirements of the markets between Europe and India.

The Trans Europe Asia System (TEAS) is developed by Cinturion Corp Ltd., with funding support from Stonecourt Capital, an investment firm based in New York.

TEAS is a trans-regional network that seamlessly links two new diverse connections across the Arabian Peninsula that are designed to support the future needs of key data centers, linking India, the Middle East and Europe. TEAS network is consists of:

• A pair of submarine cables Med West (MW) and Med East (ME) that run from European landing points ( Marseilles, France and Bari, Italy ) to the Eastern Mediterranean coast.
• Two terrestrial telecom networks continue across Jordan and Saudi Arabia, one on a northern route to Ras Al Khair and the other on a southern route to Aqaba.
• From Aqaba there will be a submarine cable India Middle East (IME) that continues out of the Gulf of Aqaba, into the Red Sea, landing in Thuwal, K.S.A., and around the Arab Peninsula to Oman, U.A.E. and Bahrain landing in Ras Al Khair, with two branches extending to Mumbai across the Indian Ocean, with an additional branch to Gwadar.

The Arctic Connect subsea cable is a Finnish plan to link Europe and Asia through a submarine communication cable on the seabed along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), an initiative of the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications and implemented by the Finnish state-owned infrastructure operator Cinia Ltd.

The total length of the Arctic Connect subsea cable will be 13,800 km. The Arctic Connect subsea cable project is expected to be finished between 2022-2023 with an estimated cost of 0.8 to 1.2 billion USD.

The Arctic Connect project is part of the efforts to improve the connectivity in Arctic areas, in line with the objectives of the Arctic Council. Previously, Cinia has already planned and completed the fast and cyber secure C-Lion1 submarine cable connection between Finland and Germany. The Arctic Connect cable aims to meet the current availability of and additional need for fibre-optic connectivity that are planned from Southern Finland to Kirkenes, Norway and Murmansk, Russia.

In March 2016, the Finnish state-owned company Cinia Ltd announced to build the Arctic Connect undersea data cable connecting Europe with Asia. The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication is the majority stakeholder of Cinia Ltd. Cinia has already built the C-Lion1 submarine cable that connects Helsinki and Rostock.

By adding the Arctic Connect subsea cable on the Arctic seabed, Cinia will be able to connect Europe with Russia and Asia, and provide a better internet connection with lower latency, thanks to the shorter distance. Additionally, the lower shipping traffic along the NSR will make Arctic Connect cable less prone to disruptions caused by human activities.

A preliminary study for Arctic Connect was launched in 2015, followed by a political feasibility study conducted the next year.

In June 2019, Cinia and Megafon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the Arctic Connect subsea cable project. In December 2019, Megafon agreed to create the split-ownership joint venture Arctic Link Development Oy with Cinia for the construction of the Artic Connect submarine cable.

The Artic Connect submarine cable will be owned by an international consortium. According to a report by the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication, Norway, Russia, Japan and China have all shown interest in the Arctic Connect project.

Finland has already been successful in attracting investments into building data centres. In September 2019, Google announced an additional investment of €600 million to its already existing Hamina data centre, which raises the total investment by Google in Hamina to almost €2 billion.

In May 2021, Cinia and MegaFon announced to suspend the Arctic Connect project for further feasibility assessment.

Cinia clings to the Arctic connections and has participated in a new attempt to build a trans-Arctic subsea cable, the Far North Fiber project.

The Kalaam Network Optical Transit (KNOT) is a new fiber-optic terrestrial international cable system that enhances regional and international connectivity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The KNOT terrestrial cable system spans over 1,400km, providing capacity of 12.8 Tbps and beyond with lowest latency connectivity to the MENA region. Given the cable is carried over an optical ground wire associated with a regional high-tension electricity network (GCCIA), it reduces the risk of cable cuts significantly, as is evident from the very high availability of the GCCIA network over the past 5 years.

This KNOT terrestrial cable system is fully owned and operated by Kalaam Telecom Group, and supplied by Ciena.

The KNOT terrestrial cable system provides route diversity across the Middle East by connecting Kalaam Telecom's meshed transmission network across 12 countries, homing 16 Points of Presence (PoP) and further connecting the MENA region as a gateway through Kalaam Telecom's POPs in Europe and Asia. 

The KNOT terrestrial cable system is expected to go live in Q4-2020.

The ARSINOE cable system connects Cyprus with France and Egypt, uses fiber optic technology to provide fast telecommunications services.

The ARSINOE cable system is a private system owned by Cyta in Cyprus, as a subsystem of the PEACE cable system.

The ARSINOE cable system lands at Yeroskipou, Cyprus.

Cyta have secured the relevant operating licence from the Ministry of Transport, Communications & Works, and is proceeding with the construction of the ARSINOE cable system. 

The ARSINOE cable system contributes significantly to the growing need of Cyprus for international connectivity, in particular for Internet and Cloud services. It also expects to serve the international and regional needs of neighbouring countries, thereby further strengthening the role of Cyprus as a telecommunications hub.

As part of the PEACE-MED, the Mediterranean segment of the PEACE cable system, the ARSINOE cable system has been ready for service as of March 28, 2022.

Hybrid African Ring Path (HARP) is a new subsea system launched by Telecom Egypt.

The HARP cable system will outline the African continent, forming the shape of a harp. It will connect coastal and landlocked African countries to Europe through the company’s widespread terrestrial and subsea infrastructure. Through HARP, Telecom Egypt will offer a wide range of capacity solutions, up to dark fiber, based on a layer two and layer three architecture that can connect multiple points on the system to one another.

Before launching the HARP cable system and in addition to involve in various subsea cable project, Telecom Egypt has participated in Google's Equiano and the 2Africa Consortium, the latest two subsea cable projects.

Telecom Egypt is building for the 2Africa cable system new terrestrial crossing routes linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and two new cable landing stations, Port Said CLS and the Ras Ghareb CLS.   

Telecom Egypt has partnered with Google on the Equiano cable project, to acquire fiber pairs on Equiano cable system and build the Equiano St Helena branch. In addition, Telecom Egypt also concluded agreement with Google to provide Google with the first of its kind layer three meshed solution on multiple redundant and resilient Egypt crossing network infrastructure, and capacity on Telecom Egypt’s TE North cable system.

JONAH is a 2,300km submarine cable connecting Tel Aviv, Israel to Bari, Italia, and extends to Europe using GTT's (formerly Interoute) pan-European fibre optic network from the cable landing station in Bari.

The JONAH cable system is equipped with two fiber pairs, capable of delivering 10G/40G/100G wavelengths, with a system capacity of more than 7 Tbps.

The JONAH cable system is owned and operated by Bezeq International Ltd., Israel's leading Internet and international telecommunications provider, founded in 1996 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bezeq, the Israeli Telecom Corp.

The JONAH cable system was supplied by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN), ready for service in Janurary 2012.

The Minerva cable system is an independent private cable subsystem of the MedNautllus cable system, forming a direct self-healing ring between Cyprus and Italy (Sicily), and through Telecom Italia Sparkle Pan-European networks, connecting to the rest of Europe, the US and beyond.

The MINERVA cable system is privately owned by Cytaglobal, and operated and managed by MED NAUTILUS for the sole use of Cytaglobal and its customers.

The Minerva cable system interconnects two landing stations in Cyprus (Yeroskipos & Pantaskhinos) directly with two landing stations in Italy (Mazara del Vallo & Catania).

The Minerva cable system uses a dedicated express fibre pair with 10Gbps DWDM wavelengths on the MedNautllus cable system, directly connecting Cyprus and Italy, ready for service in 2008. 

In January 2007, the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA) and Mediterranean Nautilus Ltd. (fully owned subsidiary of Telecom Italia Sparkle) signed an agreement for the construction of the Minerva cable system.

Mediterranean Nautilus Limited is an Irish based company fully owned by Telecom Italia Sparkle. Mediterranean Nautilus owns and operates the MedNautllus cable system, a  submarine cable ring in the Mediterranean, which has been in operation since 2001. The MedNautilus network provides end-to-end connectivity from the eastern part of the Mediterranean to major destinations in Europe.

The MedNautllus cable system and The MINERVA cable system are supplied by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN).

The MedNautilus Submarine System is a the first and only protected submarine ring-configured backbone in the Mediterranean, connecting Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Cyprus, and serves the growing capacity needs of the region.

The origin of the MedNautilus project lies with the 2600 km LEV submarine cable system linking Mazara Del Vallo (Sicily, Italy) with Tel Aviv (Israel) and Yeroskipos (Cyprus). Lev continues to serve the telecommunications needs of Israel and Cyprus, which was ready for service in March 1999, with two fiber pairs. 

The whole MedNautilus project consists of segments deployed in 4 phases.

• Phase I links Catania with Chania, Haifa and Tel Aviv. This segment has been integrated with LEV cable to form a self-healing ring.
• Phase II links Catania and Tel Aviv.
• Phase III extends with branches connecting Istanbul (Turkey) and Athens (Greece).
• Phase IV connects Alexandria (Egypt)

The MedNautilus Submarine System is owned and operated by Mediterranean Nautilus Limited, an Irish based company and fully owned by Telecom Italia Sparkle.  The MedNautilus network provides end-to-end connectivity from the eastern part of the Mediterranean to major destinations in Europe and is the leading connectivity solutions provider in the region. It uses state-of-the-art DWDM technology offering seamless connectivity between Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Israel and Cyprus by way of a 7,500 km backbone and is able to extend its reach to major cities in Europe, North America and the world thanks to protected interconnections with Telecom Italia Sparkle Pan-European and Global Backbones.

The MedNautilus Submarine System was orginally supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), ready for service in 2001, upgraded and deployed with Infinera DTN-X platform to deliver up to 100Gbps services in 2013.

In 2007, the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA) constructed its private Minerva cable system, using a dedicated express fibre pair on the MedNautllus submarine system, directly connecting Cyprus and Italy.

The ATHENA submarine cable system is a private cable subsystem wholly owned by Cyta, connecting Cyprus with Greece, through Cyta’s submarine landing station in Yeroskipos and MedNautilus Backbone landing station in Athens.

The ATHENA subsystem is the first direct fully redundant ring-configured network between Cyprus and Greece consisting of two integrated segments, one between Yeroskipos and Chania, the other between Chania and Athens, accessing additional international destinations via MedNautilus landing station in Athens.

Cyta, the premier telecommunications provider in Cyprus, and Telecom Italia Sparkle concluded agreement for the construction of the ATHENA submarine cable system in June, 2011, to build the ATHENA submarine cable system as a subsystem of the MedNautllus submarine system.

In 2007, Cyta and Telecom Italia Sparkle signed agreement for the construction of the Minerva cable system, also a subsystem of the MedNautllus submarine system, using a dedicated express fibre pair on the MedNautllus submarine system, directly connecting Cyprus and Italy. As part of the ATHENA agreement, the MINERVA cable system was upgraded to reach over 80Gbps of active protected capacity. Furthermore, the MINERVA cable system was extended through terrestrial connections up to Marseilles, in order to enhance Cyta’s protection capacity for its private ALEXANDROS submarine cable between Cyprus-France-Egypt, which is a subsystem of TE North.

ALASIA is a 240km repeaterless submarine cable system connecting Pentaskhinos, Cyprus and Tartus, Syria. The ALASIA cable system interconnects with Cyta’s ALEXANDROS cable system (a subsystem of TE North) to provide connectivity to European.

The ALASIA cable system has a 25.6 Tbps design capacity with eight fiber pairs, ready for service in 2016.

The ALASIA cable system is jointly owned and operated by Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (Cyta) and Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE). 

This ALASIA cable system complements the UGARIT Cable System, to offer an alternative routing and improve resilience between Cyprus and Syria.

The UGARIT cable system has been upgraded to form a ring system with the BERYTAR and CADMOS cable systems, connecting Syria-Lebanon and Lebanon-Cyprus respectively, offering additional access capabilities and alternate routings for improved protection. The seamless self-healing ring between the three countries is designed with 40 wavelengths, each capable of achieving up to 40Gbps. 

The KIMONAS cable system connects Cyprus and Greece through a Cyta wholly-owned subsea fibre pair between Cyta’s landing station in Pentaskhinos and MedNautilus landing station in Chania, Crete.

KIMONAS is Cyta’s first wholly owned optical fibre cable system connecting Cyprus and Greece, complements alternative Cyta’s segments on the MedNautilus subsea cable network and in particular the MINERVA and ATHENA rings, which connect Cyprus with Sicily, and Athens with Crete, respectively.

Extending to Athens through the ATHENA ring and beyond to Bulgaria via Thessaloniki, by utilizing fibre infrastructure of wholly-owned subsidiary Cyta Hellas in Greece, KIMONAS facilitates the creation of a new telecommunications corridor, connecting the Balkans and Central Europe with Egypt and other Middle East destinations, via Cyprus, enabling the interconnection to Turkey in the East and Italy and other European destinations in the West through Telecom Italia Sparkle’s network.

The KIMONAS cable system was ready for service in the end of 2015.

The SEA-ME-WE 6 (South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 6, or SMW6)  is a 19,200km submarine cable system between Singapore and France (Marseille), crossing Egypt through terrestrial cables. 

The SMW6 cable system consists of 10 fiber pairs, with 12.6Tbps per fiber pair and 126Tbps system capacity, using the latest SDM technology, cost approximately US$500million.

SMW6 consortium includes Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (India), Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun Public Limited Company (Dhiraagu Maldives), China Unicom (China), Djibouti Telecom, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Orange (France), Singtel (Singapore), Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, Telin (Indonesia), Trans World Associates (Pakistan), and Batelco. 

Batelco, part of the Beyon group, joined the SMW6 consortium in May 2023, to invest in the SEA-ME-WE 6 Gulf Extension, the Al Khaleej Cable, fully owned by Batelco.

It's reported that the budgetary costs on this project for BSCCL and SLT are approximately US$80million (Tk693 crore) and US$60million respectively. 

Airtel has acquired one Fiber Pair on the main SEA-ME-WE-6 system and will co-build four Fiber Pairs between Singapore – Chennai – Mumbai as part of the cable system. Airtel will land the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable system in India at new landing stations in Mumbai and Chennai.

Dhiraagu acquired in October 2022 a $20 million debt financing facility from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to expand mobile and internet coverage in Maldives, including a first $9.1 million facility as the first tranche to support Dhiraagu’s general capital expenditure and working capital requirements such as network capacity upgrades, expansion of data centers, and mobile service enhancements in and outside the capital Malé, and a second $10.9 million to finance further general capital expenditure and funding requirements for SMW6. 

SMW6 consortium has awarded the supply contract to SubCom, expected to be ready for service in Q1 2025.

SMW6 demonstrates the increasing geopolitical tensions on subsea cable industry between the US and China. Without the intervention by the US government, the Chinese supplier HMN Tech would have won the supply contract for the SMW6 project, through a fair bid and competition against SubCom, NEC and ASN. In early 2020, HMN Tech was supposed to win the SMW6 cable project with the lowest bid of approximately $500 million and the convincing technical solutions and proposals. In order to oust HMN Tech from the SMW6 cable project and help SubCom to win the contract, the US government intervened in the international bidding project, proffered sweeteners – and warnings – to the certain SMW6 consortium members, with diplomatic and commercial measures. In February 2021, SubCom and HMN Tech were shortlisted and given a chance by the SMW6 consortium to submit a “best and final offer.” SubCom lowered its bid to close to $600 million, while HMN Tech was now offering to build the SMW6 cable for $475 million. Finally, SubCom won and announced that the SMW6 consortium had awarded it the contract to build the SMW6 cable in February 2022. REUTERS had a special report to cover the story: U.S. and China wage war beneath the waves – over internet cables.

The Silphium cable system is a 425km repeaterless submarine cable system connecting Darnah in Libya with Chania in Greece, across the Mediterranean Sea.

The Silphium cable system is first wholly-owned submarine cable system of the Libyan International Telecom Company (LITC),  with OTEGLOBE providing the landing facilities in Chania and access to their vast European network. 

The Silphium cable system has an initial system capacity of 1.2 Tbps, using 10 Gbps DWDM technology,  upgradable to 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps.

Silphium is the third Libyan international submarine cable system, in addition to Europe India Gateway (EIG) and Italy-Libya. There is also a domestic submarine cable system in Libyan, the Libyan Fiber Optic Network (LFON).

Silphium was supplied by Huawei Marine (now HMN Techonologies), ready for service in January 2013.

The LaValette cable system is a private cable system owned by GO, connecting Malta to Europe and Asia, as part of the PEACE cable system.

GO invests €25 million in the La Valette cable system, the 3rd submarine cable owned by GO, in additional to its existing Italy-Malta cable system and GO-1 Mediterranean cable system, both connecting Malta with Sicily, Italy. 

The LaValette cable system makes GO the first operator in Malta to have additional redundancy on international connectivity to another country other than Italy. The other two operators in Malta, Epic and Melita, each has one international subsea cable connecting Malta to Sicily, Italy.

Furthermore, the LaValette cable system lands on the West Coast of Malta, making GO the first and only operator to have access to international connectivity from a shore other than that from where the rest of the other international submarine cable systems land. 

As part of the PEACE-MED, the Mediterranean segment of the PEACE cable system, the LaValette cable system has been ready for service as of March 28, 2022.

The Alval (Alger-Valencia) and Orval (Oran-Valencia) submarine cable system, the Alval / Orval cable system, connects the El-Djamila cable landing station in Algiers and the Aïn El-Turck cable landing station in Oran to the Valencia cable landing station in Spain, linking Algerian network to European network with diverse routes.

The Alval / Orval cable system consists of two fiber pairs in each route, with a total system capacity of 40Tbps, using 100*100Gbps DWDM technology.

The Alval / Orval cable system is the first submarine system managed 100% by Algeria, privately owned by Algeria Telecom, together with its subsidiary Algeria Telecom Europe in Spain.

IslaLink in Spain is the landing partner and offers its Valence cable landing station for the landing of Alval / Orval cable in Valencia, Spain.

The Alval / Orval cable system costs about US$ 27 million, supplied by ASN.

In March 2015, the Algerian Ministry of Post, Information Technology and Communications and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) signed a turnkey agreement for the deployment of the Orval system, an over 560 km fiber-optic undersea cable linking Oran in Algeria to Valencia, Spain. In the same year, by the signing a notification of agreement by the Ministry of Post and ICT, authorizing Algeria Telecom to join the Orval project through the implementation of the Alval project (adding a branch of 210km), financed from Algeria Telecom's own funds.

The Alval / Orval cable system was put into commercial operation on December 31, 2020, although there was a false inauguration on December 9, 2019.

The Medex cable system is a subsystem of the TE North cable system, by adding a branch of 184km connecting Annaba, Algeria to Marseille, France and Abu Talat, Egypt.

The Medex cable system consists of two fiber pairs in the Annaba Branch, one fiber pair from Annaba CLS to Abu Talat CLS, and one fiber pair from Annaba CLS to Marseille CLS, upgradable to 10Tbps per fiber pair.

The Medex cable system costs about US$32 million, including the Annaba Branch of 184km and one fiber pair on the TE North trunk from Marseille, France to Abu Talat，Egypt.

The Medex cable system was ready for service in February 2019, supplied by ASN.

The Medex cable system is jointly owned by Algerie Telecom and PCCW Global. In addition to the Medex cable system, Algerie Telecom owns the Alval / Orval cable system connecting Algeria to Valencia, Spain.

The Med Cable network is a 1,300km submarine cable networks connecting Marseilles to Algiers and Annaba in Algeria.

The Med Cable network is privately owned by Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. (OTH). The Med Cable Network was invested by Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E. (OTMT) in 2005, through its fully owned subsidiary Med Cable Ltd (Med Cable), based in the UK. In November 2012, OTH acquired 100% of Med Cable for a value of Euro 12.3 million.

The Med Cable Network was ready for service in October 2005, supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN).

The Europe Middle-East India Connect 1 (EMIC-1) is a new intercontinental subsea cable and terrestrial fiber system developed by Digital 9 Infrastructure (D9), the owner of Aqua Comms. The EMIC-1 cable system is in fact a sub-system of 2Africa Pearls.

On July 28, 2021, D9 reported to the London Stock Exchange that is has entered into definitive agreements to deploy over £50 million (US$69.5 million) into the development of a new intercontinental fibre system, the Europe Middle-East India Connect 1 (EMIC-1). D9 is investing over £50 million over a three-year period, alongside a leading global content provider and consortium.

D9 announced later that the company has agreed to purchase rights to one fibre pair from Edge Network Services Ltd (a subsidiary of Facebook) on the recently announced 2Africa Pearls fibreoptic cable system, enabling connectivity from Europe through Egypt to Oman and India. D9 will market the route as EMIC-1.

Aqua Comms will operate and manage the capacity on behalf of D9 as an integral part of its expanding global subsea network.

The Polar Express subsea cable is a 12,650km subsea cable along Russia's northern coast between the village of Teriberka in Kolsky District of Murmansk, on the Barents Sea, to the eastern port city of Vladivostok.

The Polar Express subsea cable project is being developed by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport (Rosmorrechflot), and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) Rosmorport. aiming to supply stable internet in Arctic port towns as well as the Kamchatka peninsula and Sakhalin, at a cost of 65 billion roubles ($889 million)，exclusively financed by the state.

The Polar Express subsea cable system will be operated by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Morsviazsputnik (FSUE Morsviazsputnik). Prior to the Polar Express project, the main activity of Morsviazsputnik was the provision of Inmarsat mobile satellite communication services to legal entities and private users under the license of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications.

Contractors for the Polar Express project includes:

• Main Contractor  - JSC “PERSPECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AGENCY” 
• Contracting organization for the production of cable - Cable Production Division of the PTA Group
• Cable-laying Contractor -  PTA Group Shipping company

The Polar Express subsea cable system consists of six fiber pairs, offering up to 104 Tbps of capacity, with

• two fiber pairs for direct communication on the main section from Murmansk to Vladivostok with a length of 12650 km;
• two fiber pairs for the organization of four independent branches to intermediate objects at the landing points: Amderma, Dixon, Tiksi, Pevek, Anadyr, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk;
• two fiber pairs for the organization of a backbone reserve for the future development of the entire communication network.

The Polar Express subsea cable is expected to be completed in 2026.

The Medusa cable system is a 8760km submarine cable system connecting five Mediterranean EU countries (Cyprus, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) with four countries from the EU's Southern Neighbourhood (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia).

The Medusa cable system consists of landing points in:

• Lisbon (Carcavelos) and Sines (Start Campus), Portugal
• Barcelona, Torreguadiaro, Zahara and Alacant, Spain;
• Marseille, France;
• Mazara del Vallo, Italy
• Yeroskipou, Cyprus
• Tétouan and Nador, Morocco;
• Bizerte, Tunisia
• Algiers and Collo, Algeria;
• Port Said, Egypt

The Medusa cable system consists of 24 fibre pairs, designed with 20Tbs per fibre pair for a total system capacity of 480Tbps, deployed with  protection and predictive maintenance of submarine cable infrastructures (PSI) and an intelligent monitoring system based on DAS (Distributed Acoustic Sensing) technology.

The Medusa cable system is funded by AFR-IX Telecom, Orange and the European Union though CEF (Connecting Europe Facilities) grants.  Orange provides landing infrastructures in France, Tunisia and Morocco, and will land Medusa cable at its new cable landing infrastructure in Marseille.

The construction contracts have been awarded to industry leaders Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and Elettra Tlc, with contract into force (CIF) in early July 2023. 

The Medusa cable project is estimated to cost €342 million (US$374 million), with financial supports by multiple EU fund grants including but not limited to:

• a €40 million EU grant to AFX-IX telecom by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a debt finance for the infrastructure with a contribution of up to €100 million in loans.
• a €7.79 million grant to AFX-IX telecom for the deployment of a pair of dark fibre between Lisbon, Zahara de los Atunes, Barcelona, Marseille and Mazara del Vallo, i.e., the Atlantic-Mediterranean Data Gateway (ATMED-DG) project, as part of the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) Digital programme
• a €10 million grant to Orange by the EU Commission for the development of submarine cable between Marseille (France) and Bizerte (Tunisia), as part of the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) Digital programme
• a €1.39 million grant to AFX-IX telecom by the EU Commission for studies on MEDUSA Canary Island Submarine Cable, as part of the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) Digital programme

The Far North Fiber is a 17,000km submarine cable system linking Europe and Asia through the Arctic region, from Japan, via the Northwest Passage, to Europe with landings in the US (Alaska) and Canadian Arctic, Norway, Finland and Ireland.

The Far North Fiber project was initiated by Far North Digital, LLC (US Alaskan company), together with its Canadian affiliate True North Global Networks.

In December 2021, Cinia Ltd from Finland and Far North Digital LLC announced a joint effort to build the Far North Fiber subsea cable linking Asia and Europe. In Feburary 2022, Japanese ARTERIA Networks Corporation joined the consortium.

In October 2022, Far North Digital LLC, Cinia and Arteria formed a joint corporation Far North Fiber Inc. to develop and operate the project.

The Far North Fiber (FNF) cable system consists of 12 fiber pairs, with 10 FPs for express route and 2 FPs reserved for local add/drops, with design capacity up to 150Tbps:

• Express Spectrum: 60λ X 200G/FP = 12 Tbps/FP without regeneration.

• Add Drop Spectrum: 60λ X 250G/FP = 15 Tbps/FP with regeneration.

• Low Latency Express Capacity: 10FP x 12 Tbps/FP = 120 Tbps

• Local add/drop capacity: 2FP x 15 Tbps/FP = 30 Tbps

The Far North Fiber (FNF) cable system is projected to cost approximately CAD1.48 billion (or US$1.17 billion, or Euro 1.1 billion), supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), expected to be ready for service by the end of the year 2026. 

There is a similar project, Arctic Fiber, planned to connect Japan and Europe through Canadian Arctic, with its Alaska portion activated in 2017. Quintillion Subsea Holdings LLC (“Quintillion”) acquired the assets of Arctic Fibre in May 2016. Quintillion is now planning the Japan-Washington State Trans-Pacific Cable System (JAWS TPCS), the 2nd phase of its Arctic Fibre project.

There was also an attempt to build a trans-Arctic subsea cable linking Europe and Asia through the Northern Sea Route (NSR), the Arctic Connect project initiated by Cinia, in a partnership with Russian operation MegaFon and others. The Arctic Connect project was suspended in May 2021, for further feasibility assessment.

The Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS) is a 1917km submarine optic fibre cable between Seychelles and Tanzania, the first international submarine cable connecting the Seychelles.

SEAS links the main island Mahé in Seychelles to the African coast in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. While the Cable Landing Station in Seychelles is located in the capital Victoria. In Tanzanian, SEAS is co-located with the EASSy international submarine cable branch in ZANTEL's Cable Landing Station in Dar Es Salaam.

SEAS is owned and operated by the Seychelles Cable Systems Company Ltd (SCS), an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) comprising the Seychelles Government, Cable & Wireless (Seychelles) and Airtel (Seychelles), established in 2008 for the construction and operation of the Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS). 

In November 2010, SCS awarded ASN (ALCATEL Submarine Networks) a supply contract of over €24 million (approximately US$30 million) for the manufacturing and laying of the Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS). 

The overall project cost of SEAS is about €27.2 million, financed through 40% equity and 60% debt. Equity contributions are split between three shareholders, the Government of the Seychelles, Cable and Wireless Seychelles and Airtel. For the funding of the Government’s shareholding, the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund provides, through the European Investment Bank, a Grant of €4 million (equivalent of US$5.5 million US Dollars. And the long-term debt is co-financed by the European Investment Bank (€7.9 million) and African Development Bank (€7.5 million). 

The Seychelles Cable Systems Ltd (SCS) is a private-public partnership comprising of Airtel, Cable and Wireless Seychelles and the Seychelles Government. The EUR 27 million overall project cost is 

SEAS was ready for service on August 15, 2012, with initial capacity of 20Gbps and a system capacity of 320Gbps,  upgraded to support system capacity of 32 x 100Gbps in January 2018.

In addition to SEAS, the Seychelles Cable Systems Ltd (SCS) invests US$20million in PEACE cable system, the second international submarine cable connecting Seychelles. SCS is also a shareholder of WIOCC, the largest shareholder in the EASSy Consortium. 

The Jeddah to Marseille (J2M) submarine cable system connects Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Marseille, France, being a subsystem of the PEACE cable system.

The J2M cable system is developed by Zain Global Connect (ZGC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zain Group. ZGC is in charge of consolidating Zain Group’s initiatives into the wholesale carrier domain. The investment marks ZGC’s first subsea cable investment and ownership. Zain Saudi Arabia acts as the landing party in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

As the PEACE cable system is designed with an open cable system architecture, that will offer Zain full operational independence. 

The J2M cable system is expected tol be ready for service in early 2023.

The East to Med Corridor (EMC) is a new submarine and terrestrial cable data transmission system connecting Europe with Asia via Greece and Saudi Arabia.

The EMC project utilizes the geographical location of Greece and Saudi Arabia to create a data corridor necessary for the global economy, while placing the two countries at the center of transport, storage and data generation in Eurasia. 

The EMC consortium comprises center3 (formerly MENA HUB, a subsidiary of stc), Telecommunication Telephony Satellite Applications (TTSA, Greece), Public Power Corporation (PPC, Greece) and Cyta (Cyprus).

In the Greek-Saudi Business Forum on May 31, 2022, the CEO of MENA HUB, Fahad Alhajeri, the President and CEO of PPC, George Stasis, the CEO of CyTA, Andreas Neokleous, and the Executive Director of TTSA, Alexandros Sinkas signed the Heads of Terms regarding the obligations of each party in the implementation of the EMC project.

On July 26, 2022, Mena Hub, TTSA, PPC and Cyta signed the Shareholders' Agreement to form a joint venture for the EMC project.

The total cost of the EMC project is around USD 850 million. The completion of the project is estimated for the 4th quarter of 2025.

In May 2023, center3 and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) announced the signing of supply contract. 

The Red2Med cable starts from the Ras Ghareb landing point in the Red Sea to the landing station in Port Said in the Mediterranean via the Golden Path on Al Murshideen Road (the Internet Corridor of Egypt, ICE).

The Red2Med cable offers a new crossing solution composed of three segments which are detached from the conventional public roads:

• it begins in the south from the Al-Faston sea link to the Red Sea, which connects the landing stations in the Red Sea, Ras Ghareb, Zafarana and Suez, with a length of 200 km;
• then extends north to the path of the Internet Corridor of Egypt ( ICE) along the western bank of the Suez Canal, to link Suez Landing Station 2 and Port Said Landing Station 2, with a length of 200 km;
• to finally connect to the Fieston sea link for the Mediterranean Sea, which is scheduled to link the landing stations in the Mediterranean.

The Red2Med cable represents the shortest and fastest data transmission paths between East and West and the continents of Africa, Europe and Asia

The Red2Med cable is wholly owned and operated by Telecom Egypt.

CADMOS-2 is a new subsea cable between Cyprus and Lebanon, expected to be operational in 2024.

T3 submarine cable system connects South Africa with Mauritius, with branching units to Reunion Island and Madagascar.

T3 submarine cable project is developed by Mauritius Telecom, in a partnership with Liquid Telecom.

Liquid Telecom acts as the landing partner to land the cable in Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal province on the east coast of South Africa. METISS cable system also lands at the Amanzimtoni cable landing staion. 

T3 submarine cable project is a revival of the original IOX submarine cable project, a 8,850 km system to connect Mauritius with South Africa and India.

T3 cable system consists of 4 fiber pairs in its trunk, with design capacity of 13.5 Tbps per fiber pair and 54 Tbps for the whole system.

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been contracted to supply and install the T3 submarine cable system.

Barracuda Submarine Cable System (Barracuda SCS) is designed to connect Alicante to Marseille and Libon, spanning approximately 2,200km and being sub-system of the Medusa cable system.

Alicante is a port city on Spain’s southeastern Costa Blanca, and the capital of the Alicante province.

The Barracuda SCS will be owned and operated by Valencia Digital Port Connect SL (VDPC), a Spanish company registered in Alicante on 07/29/2021, under the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE 2009)  6110 - Cable Telecommunications.

The Barracuda SCS is expected to consist of 1 fiber pair connecting Alicante to Lisbon and 1 fiber pair connecting Alicante to Marseille, each with capacity of 20Tbps (40*500Gbps).  

VDPC will build an open cable landing station in Alicante (Alicante CLS), to host the Barracuda SCS and up to 3 additional subsea cable systems. The Alicante CLS will be a 2,500 sqm facility, with an initial construction budget of over €10mn (US$11mn), will have the capacity for up to four subsea cables and house a data center with 96 racks as well as a meet-me room.

VDPC will build a terrestrial network of 1,300km connecting the Alicante CLS to major data centers in Madrid and Valencia.

The ANDROMEDA cable system connects Israel, Cyprus, and Greece through an alternative low latency path between Europe and the Middle East, extending through additional subsea and terrestrial links westwards to the Balkans and important destinations in Central and Western Europe, and eastwards to the Arabian Peninsula and other destinations.

The ANDROMEDA cable system is jointly built and owned by Tamares Telecom and Grid Telecom.

Tamares Telecom is a leading fiber-based international communications and data service provider and network operator, a subsidiary of Aluma Infrastructure Fund of Israel.

Grid Telecom is a wholly owned subsidiary, and the telecommunications vehicle of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) of Greece. 

The Pacific Fibre cable is a new 12,750km (7,920 miles) trans-pacific subsea fiber optic cable linking Australia, New Zealand and the US, with cable landing stations in Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles. The Pacific Fibre cable system consists of two fiber pairs, with 128 wavelengths per fibre pair. By using the latest 40 Gbps per wavelength technology, the Pacific Fibre is expected to have a capacity of up to 5.12 Tbps, and will be further upgradeable to beyond 12 Tbps with future 100 Gbps per wavelength technology.

The Pacific Fibre is the second international submarine cable system landing in New Zealand, with significant improvement to the international network resilience in New Zealand.

The Pacific Fibre is expected to be ready for service in 2014.

Unfortunately, the Pacific Fibre has ceased operation as at 1 August 2012, citing an inability to raise enough investment to fund the cable build.

Optikor Network is a new trans-Tasman submarine cable system connecting Sydney, Australia with South Island and North Island, New Zealandlink, with a cable length of more than 3000 km. The trans-Tasman Optikor Network is designed to provide initially a capacity of 120 Gbps with 1 fiber pair, and eventually 6.4 Tbps with 2 fibre pairs.

Axin Limited initiated the trans-Tasman Optikor Network in September 2011. Axin Limited, founded in 2010, is fully invested by the Sino Telecommunication, and plays major role in the national broad band project of New Zealand.

The trans-Tasman Optikor Network is expected to be ready for service by the end of 2013.

This  trans-Tasman Optikor Network will address the large capacity requirements in the Tasman region and bring competition to the capacity markets in Australia and New Zealand where are now dominated by the Southern Cross Cable Network and the undergoing Pacific Fibre.

Tasman Global Access (TGA) is 2300km submarine cable system connecting New Zealand and Australia.

The TGA consortium comprises Vodafone New Zealand, Spark New Zealand and Telstra.

The TGA cable system lands at: 

• Raglan Cable Landing Station, New Zealand,
• Oxford Falls Cable Landing Station, Australia

The TGA cable system consists of two fiber pairs, with a design capacity of 20Tbps, deploying 100G DWDM technology. 

The TGA cable system was supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), with a total cost of about US$70 million.

The TGA cable system was ready for service in March 2017.

Hawaiki Cable spans 15,000 km, linking Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Pacific Island, Hawaii and Oregon, on the U.S. West Coast.

The Hawaiki Cable System has a initial design capacity of 30Tbps on its trans-pacific route offers, offer the following connecctions: 

• Australia to Hawaii, 2 fiber pairs, 20Tbps
• New Zealand to Hawaii, 1 fiber pair, 10 Tbps
• Hawaii to Hillsboro, 3 fiber pairs, 30 Tbps
• Australia to New Zealand, 1 fiber, 12 Tbps
• Branching Unit to America Somoa, 2 fiber pairs, 100-200Gbps
• Branching Unit to New Caledonia (Tomoo Cable), 2 fiber pair, up to 2Tbps per fiber pair.

The main trunk of Hawaiki cable system is 100% owned and constructed by Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP (HSC LP), headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. The total investment in Hawaiki Cable is approximately US$300 million (NZD 445m).

HSC LP and its affiliates owns and/or controls the cable landing stations ("CLS") in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Oregon, as follows:

• Australia: CLS in Sydney is colocated at Equinix SY4.
• New Zealand: HSC LP builds and owns a new CLS in  Mangawhai Heads.
• Hawaii: HSC USA builds and owns a new CLS in Kapolei, with DRFortress acting as landing party in Hawaii.
• Oregon: CLS in Pacific City is leased from Tillamook Lightwave, who owns the CLS. ACS Cable Systems, LLC operates the CLS in Oregon pursuant to an agreement with HSC USA. The SLTE of Hawaiki cable system is terminated at Flexential's Brookwood data center in Hillsboro.

American Samoa Telecommunications Authority ("ASTCA"), the government-owned incumbent local exchange carrier in the U.S. Territory of American Samoa, owns, constructs and operates the branch to American Samoa and corresponding landing station.

Research and Educational Advanced Network New Zealand (Reannz), owned by Government of New Zealand, was the first anchor customer of Hawaiki Cable. As of July 2014, Government has entered into the anchor tenancy contract with Hawaiki Cable, valued $65million. The total cost of the tenancy includes an initial contribution of $15 million and annual fees over the 25-year period. The Government has provided the $15 million contribution from an appropriation set aside for purchasing an anchor tenancy on a new transtasman and trans-Pacific submarine cable. Reannz will meet the annual fees out of its existing revenues. 

In October 2016, Amazon AWS purchased capacity in the Hawaiki cable system,  making it AWS' first investment in an international submarine cable system.

The Hawaiki submarine cable system was ready for service on Jul. 20, 2018.

In September 2018, Australia-based Palisade Investment Partners acquired 30% interest in HSC LP and obtained de facto control of HSC LP and the Hawaiki Cable System.

In June 2019, Hawaiki Cable opened new subsea route to the US with direct access to Los Angeles, based on the most easterly segment of the SEA-US cable.

In December 2019, Hawaiki Cable announced to add a branch to New Caledonia, named ‘Tomoo Cable’, with the Société Calédonienne de Connectivité Internationale (SCCI) as the landing party in New Caledonia.

In July 2021, BW Group Limited, through its affiliate company BW Digital Pte. Ltd., acquired 100% shares of HSC LP and the Hawaiki Cable System. The acquisition was subject to applicable regulatory filings and approvals and was completed in May 2022. Local press reports indicate that the sale price of the transaction, from the Palisade-led consortium, to BW Group, was appoximately US$350m.

The Manatua cable system (also known as Manatua One Polynesia Cable) is a 3600km submarine cable connecting Samoa, Niue, Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands and Tahiti and Bora Bora in French Polynesia.

 It is the first fibre connectivity to Niue and the Cook Islands.

The Manatua cable system has six landings: 

• Tahiti and Bora Bora in French Polynesia,
• Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands,
• Apia, Samoa, and
• Niue. 

The Manatua cable system consists of 2-fibre-pair trunk, operating at up to 10 Tbps:

• a two fiber pair trunk connecting Apia and Toahotu (Tahiti)
• a two-fiber pair branch to Avatele,
• a three-fiber pair branch to Rarotonga and
• one-fiber pair branches to both Aitutaki and Vaitape. 

The Manatua Consortium is composed of:

• The Office des Postes et Télécommunications (OPT), the telecoms operator of French Polynesia;
• Avaroa Cables Limited (ACL), the cable operator of Cook Islands,
• Telecom Niue Limited (TNL), the telecoms operator of Niue; and
• Samoa Submarine Cable Company (SSCC), the cable operator of the Independent State of Samoa. 

The Manatua submarine cable system is supplied by SubCom,  ready for service on 22 July 2020.

The Kumul submarine cable network (KSCN) is a 5,457-km domestic internet platform to link fourteen provinces and two national data centres in Port Moresby and Madang, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The KSCN also connects to Jakarta through Indonesia’s national backbone submarine cable network and further connect to Asia to form a new international internet gateway.

Located in the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea is an island nation with numerous mountains and volcanoes, where domestic telecommunications largely relies on satellite and microwave communications. Huawei Marine and PNG DataCo Limited, a Telecommunications Carrier established by the PNG Government, constructs the national submarine cable network to provide the backbone telecommunications needed by major coastal centers and islands in Papua New Guinea

The KSCN project, part-funded by the Chinese government. The PNG government approached China for funding support and the Chinese Exim Bank provided 85% preferential buyers credit to the PNG government to carry out the project.

Gondwana-1 is a 2151km submarine cable network connecting New Caledonia and Australia, ready for service in September 2008.

The Gondwana-1 submarine cable system is owned and operated by the incumbent government-owned carrier in New Caledonia, OPT. 

The Gondwana-1 submarine cable system consists of two parts, the main segment linking New Caledonia to Australia, and a short unrepeated segment from New Caledonia to the Loyalty Islands, with a landing stations at Poindimie (Main island), Mouly (Ouvea) and Xepenehe (Lifou).

The  Gondwana-1 submarine cable lands at the following site:

• Narrabeen beach, Brookvale Cable Landing Station, Sydney, Australia
• Poindimié commune, North Province, New Caledonia
• Mouli Island, Ouvea commune, Loyalty Islands Province, New Caledonia
• Xepenehe, Lifou commune, Loyalty Islands Province, New Caledonia.

The Gondwana-1 submarine cable system is supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN)

The APNG-2 is a 1800km submarine cable linking Papua New Guinea directly to Australia and indirectly to New Zealand and the rest of the world. The APNG-2 cable system was ready for service late 2006.

The APNG-2 cable lands at:

• Ela Beach, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
• Narrabeen, Oxford Falls, Sydney, Australia

The APNG-2 consortium comprises Telikom PNG, Telstra, and Telecom New Zealand.

The APNG-2 cable system was built by recovery and reuse of an 1,800 km section of the PacRimWest cable, which was recovered from just south of Guam, with the ship sailing towards the Solomon Islands.

The ship then recovered a loop of the PacRimWest cable off Rockhampton, Queensland, broke it, and spliced it to the Sydney end of the recovered 1,800 km section, sailed towards PNG, made landfall at Ela Beach near Port Moresby, where a terminal station from Guam was re-established to link to the Telikom PNG network.

PacRimWest is a fibre-optic cable with two fibre pairs. These were used to provide APNG-2 with around 1100 Mbit/s data capability, consisting of 2 x 565 Mbit/s PDH systems with all electronic regeneration.

The cost of the APNG-2 cable system would be about US$60million, it was finally about US$11million. Reuse of the PacRimWest cable saved about 80% of the cost of a new cable.

PacRimWest

PacRimWest was a twin-pair 560Mbit/s optical submarine cable connecting Australia to Guam, for a total length of 7,062km.

PacRimWest was constructed in 1994 and was came into service on 31 January 1995. 

PacRimWest was designed to have an operational life of 25 years, but it was decommissioned from service in 2005.

After decommissioning in 2005, the PacRimWest cable was cut near the Solomon Islands and relaid to form APNG-2 in 2006 connecting Sydney and Papua New Guinea, saving PNG around 80% of the cost of building a new cable and plant with the equipment from the Guam landing station being moved to PNG.

The article by  Alcatel Submarine Networks demonstrated the recovery and reuse of PacRimWest cable for APNG-2. 

The Tonga-Fiji Submarine Cable System (also known as Tonga Cable) is a 827km fiber optic submarine cable system linking Nuku'alofa, Tonga and Suva, Fiji, and connects to the Southern Cross Cable Network at the Suva Cable Landing Station in Fiji.

The Tonga-Fiji Submarine Cable System is owned and operated by the state-owned Tonga Cable Limited (TCL), which was set up in 2011 to develop, and manage the submarine cable with financing support by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.

According to ADB report, the total project cost was estimated at $32.8 million, with ADB contributing $9.7 million, the World Bank $16.5 million, and the government $6.6 million. Total investment costs equaled $32.4 million and consisted of civil works ($4.2 million), procurement of the submarine cable system (estimated at $26.2 million), consulting services ($1.2 million), and taxes and duties ($0.8 million). Recurrent costs totaled $0.4 million, consisting of salaries, office space, and equipment operation and maintenance.

TCL signed a single (turnkey) contract valued at $18.8 million to install the international cable between Tonga and Fiji—lower than the estimated contract value of $26.2 million. By project completion, the final contract value had increased to $21.4 million to cover the purchase of additional cable equipment needed for installation. The original works were completed on time and within budget, with a saving of $4.58 million, of which 49.9% ($2.28 million) was ADB’s and 50.1% ($2.29 million) the World Bank’s.

The Tonga-Fiji Submarine Cable System is supplied by ASN, ready for service on 21 August 2013.

Tonga Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE)

With the saving of $4.58 million and additional fund of $7.0million by the Tonga Government, the Tonga Cable was extended domestically from Tonga Isaland to Vava’u (additional 348 km) and Ha’apai (a further 58 km), at a total cost of about $11.0 million. To fund the Tong Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE), the government of Tonga sold 16.7% of TCL shares to Digicel Tonga Limited (Digicel) for $4.2 million. The Tonga Domestic Cable Extension was also supplied by ASN and ready for service in January 2018.

Tonga Communications Corporation (TCC) and Digicel Tonga Limited  are leading operators in Tonga.

TCC is a state-owned enterprise (SOE), provides fixed line, mobile and internet services in Tonga. 

Digicel Tonga Limited is part of Digicel Pacific Limited (DPL), wholly-owned subsidiary of Digicel Group Holdings Limited (DGHL) which operates in 32 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Pacific. In October 2021, Telstra acquired Digicel Pacific Limited for US$1.85 billion.

The AJC Network (Australia Japan Cable Network) is a 12,700km submarine cable network connecting Australia, Guam and Japan, with two fiber pairs.

The AJC network was initially designed with 10 Gbps DWDM technology, with a design capacity of up to 64 waves per fibre pair over two fiber pairs. The AJC network runs through the six AJC cable landing stations, with two separate cable landing stations in each of  Japan, Australia and Guam. The AJC Network was ready for service on 30 December 2001.

The AJC network was upgraded the addition of 40G technology in mid 2012 and the addition of 100G technology in late 2013 and early 2014.  During 2018 AJC was upgraded with latest optical coherent technology to be equipped with some 5Tbps Australia-Guam-Japan. 

The Design Capacity of AJC is currently approximately 10Tbps.

The JASURAUS submarine cable system (also know as APCN Australian Extension) connects Australia (Port Hedland) with Indonesia (Jakarta), with total cable length of 2800 km and a design capacity of 5 Gbps. and brings Australia to the Asia Pacific Cable Netwoen/systems/intra-asia/apcnrk (APCN).

For more information about the JASURAUS, please refer to APCN cable system overview.

The ASSC-1 submarine cable system is a new cable connecting Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, comprises four fibre pairs and spans a distance of 4,600 km.

The ASSC-1 consists of three express fiber pairs directly linking Perth and Singpare and one omnibus fibre pair between Perth, Jakarta and Singapore.

The ASSC-1 cable system will have an initial design capacity of 6.4 Tbps, running at 40 Gbps technology, with the capability to be upgraded to 100 Gbps in the future.

The ASSC-1 cable system is scheduled to be ready for service by the end of 2013.

The INDIGO cable system spans 9200km, consists of two distinct cable projects, Indigo West of 4600km connecting Singapore to Perth via Jakarta, and Indigo Central of 4600km connecting Perth to Sydney.

The INDIGO consortium comprises AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra. Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) is the system supplier.

The INDIGO cable system is designed with two fiber pairs, with a design capacity of around 36 Tbps and option to expand in the future. INDIGO cable system features new spectrum-sharing technology, each consortium member can deploy its own SLTE, upgrade their networks and enable capacity increases on demand independently.

In Australia, the INDIGO WEST lands at Floreat Beach in Perth, and the INDIGO Central lands at Coogee Beach in Sydney. The terminal equipment of INDIGO cable system is hosted at NextDC's P1, P2, S1, and S2 datacentres across Perth and Sydney.

The INDIGO cable system has been ready for service since the end of May 2019. 

Papua New Guinea is an island nation located in the South Pacific. The PNG National Submarine Cable Network is built and operated by PNG DataCo Limited, connecting 14 main cities in PNG, and with international connectivity by a link to Jayapura in Indonesia, and interconnection with PPC-1 at Madand cable landing station, onward to Guam and Sydney, Australia. 

The design capacity of the system is 8Tbps. And it is expected to be completed in 2018.

Trident Cable System is a 28 Tbps subsea cable, using 100Gbps coherent DWDM technology upgradeable to 400Gbps technology in the future, which will connect Australia, Singapore and Jakarta.

The Trident cable will have interconnection points in Equinix IBX data centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and Jakarta, as well as a landing point in Perth, providing greater connectivity for businesses, content providers and communications network providers.

The Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) Cable System comprises JGA South and JGA North, interconnecting at a new cable landing station in Piti, Guam.

JGA South and JGA North are operated as separate cable systems. JGA South is supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), while JGA North is supplied by NEC Corporation.

JGA South (JGA-S) is a consortium cable. JGA South consortium includes AARNet, Google and RTI (RTI JGA Pte. Ltd. and RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd.). Spanning approxiamately 7000km, the JGA South connects Sydney and Piti in Guam with a branch to Sunshine Coast of Queensland, with an initial design capacity of 36 Tbps (2*180*100Gbps) on 2 fiber pairs. On its Sydney to Guam Main Trunk, Google owns half fiber pair (25%) , AARNet owns a quarter fiber pair (12.5%), RTI JGA owns one and a quarter fiber pairs (62.5%). RTI JGA soly owns the branch to Sunshine Coast. RTI Connectivity serves as Asset Manager of RTI JGA pursuant to an Asset Management Agreement by and between the two companies. Consequently, RTI Connectivity controls the 62.5% voting and participation interests in the Main Trunk of JGA South. JGA South is the first new cable ever to land in Sunshine Coast of Queensland, on the east coast of Australia, outside of Sydney. In Guam, the JGA South lands at the GNC Cable Landing Station. In Sydney, the JGA South lands at the Brookvale Cable Landing Station.

JGA North (JGA-N), the 2700km segment between the Minami-Boso in Japan and Piti in Guam, is a private cable of RTI, through its affiliates RTI Solutions, Inc. (“RTI Solutions”), RTI JGA Pte. Ltd. (“RTI JGA”), and RTI Connectivity Pte.Ltd. (“RTI Connectivity”). RTI Solutions serves as the landing party in Guam. RTI JGA owns 100% of the wet segment of JGA North. RTI Connectivity controls the wet segment of the JGA North in its role as Asset Manager of RTI JGA. The JGA North cable consists of two fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 24 Tbps (2*120*100Gpbs). The JGA-North lands at the GNC CLS and data center in Piti, Guam, adjcent to the  Piti-I CLS. The Minamiboso cable landing station for JGA North is a new cable landing station owned and controled by NTT, which is built as terminal station for NTT's Jupiter cable system. The Minamiboso cable landing station will provide additional geographical diversity for U.S.-Japan traffic currently landing at KDDI's Chikura cable landing station and SoftBank's Maruyama cable landing station.

JGA South and JGA North were ready for service in March and July 2020 respectively. 

The Coral Sea Cable System (CS²) is a 4,700km long fibre optic submarine cable system linking Sydney, Australia, to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and Honiara, Solomon Islands. The project also includes a 730km submarine cable system connecting Honiara to Auki (Malaita Island), Noro (New Georgia Island) and Taro Island.

The four fibre-pair international system delivers a minimum of 20Tbps capacity to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands respectively, a total capacity of 40Tbps. This significantly augments Papua New Guinea’s existing submarine cable capacity. The Solomon Islands currently relies solely on satellite for international voice and data communications.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• A 4,700km submarine cable system linking Sydney to Port Moresby and Honiara.
• The Solomon Islands Domestic Network is also a 730km submarine cable system connecting Honiara to Auki, Noro and Taro Islands.
• Delivering faster, cheaper and more reliable communications infrastructure.
• Bringing both countries significant economic and development opportunities.

The Coral Sea Cable System (CS²) is supplied and installed by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), utilising ASN's 1620 SOFTNODE Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) .

The Australian Government provides the majority funding (around two-thirds) for the Coral Sea Cable System (CS²), with PNG and Solomon Islands Governments jointly contributing up to one third of project costs. The project costs approximately AU$200m (US$144.2m). 

The CS² consortium comprises Vocus Communications, Solomon Island Submarine Cable Company, PNG DataCo Limited.

Vocus Communications was selected by the Australian Government to implement the Coral Sea Cable System (CS²) project which lands at Tamarama Beach and houses the termnial equipment at the Paddington Cable Landing Station in Sydney.

The project was originally awarded to Huawei Marine (now HMN Tech) which signed a contract with Solomon Island Submarine Cable Company in 2017.  Then, the Australian government intervened and stepped in, offering to jointly fund the construction of the cable, which the Solomons government accepted in 2018. So, Australia supplants China to build the undersea cable for Solomon Islands.

The Coral Sea Cable System (CS²)  was ready for service in February 2020.

The Oman Australia Cable (OAC) is a 9800km submarine cable connecting Muscat, Oman and Perth, Australia, with additional branching units designed to extend the system into Salalah, Oman and Djibouti in the future.

The OAC delivers cost-effective, reliable, low-latency (97ms) and diverse connectivity between Oman and Australia. and forms part of the only path from the US to EMEA, avoiding the Sunda Strait and the South China Sea. 

The OAC cable system consists of 3 fiber pairs, initially designed with 130*100G DWDM for a total system capacity of 39Tbps，and upgraded with Ciena GeoMesh Extreme powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme in the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform to support 400Gbps waves for a total system capacity of 48Tbps in October 2023 

The OAC cable land at Equinix PE2 in Perth, Equinix MC1 in Muscat, and a clandestine landing in Diego Garcia.

The OAC cable system is owned and invested by SUB.CO, partnering with Omantel as landing partner in Oman, supplied by SubCom.

The cost of the OAC cable system is approximately US$300million. According to Reuters, the US Pentagon funds for around a third of the entire system cost to include a clandestine link to the U.S. Navy base on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. 

The Oman Australia Cable (OAC) has been launched for commercial service as of October 23, 2022.

The KOETE subsea cable system is a 8,000-kilometer, carrier-neutral, high-speed low-latency subsea cable connecting with three data centre hubs in Perth, Darwin and Dampier, and seven cable landing stations (CLS) between Perth and Darwin, and onward connectivity from Perth to Malaysia via Indonesia and Singapore.

The segments from Perth to Darwin and Dampier consists of 16 fibre pairs, the segments from Perth to Malaysia via Indonesia and Singapore consists of a minimum of 3 fibre pairs.

The KOETE project is developing by Fibre Expressway Pty Ltd (FEPL), an Australian company.

FEPL is building three greenfield Tier IV Data Centers in Perth, Darwin and Dampier, initially providing a combined 60 Megawatt capacity. The KOETE cable will connect the three data centers. The data centers will be critical to facilitating connectivity in Project Koete and will be built to the Tier IV Uptime Institute standard and the highest levels of security and efficiency. The initial capacity for each will be 20MW – the equivalent of power for 13,000 homes – with ample pre-built capacity and room to grow. The cable landing station (CLS) will be the primary connection point from Perth and Darwin to the subsea cable.

FEPL projected US$1.5 billion for the KOETE project, including subsea cable and data centers. The project is being primarily funded by approximately US$650 million in senior debt and US$850 million in equity.

The KOETE cable system is estimated to be ready for service in 2023.

The Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable (DJSC) system is subsea cable connecting Australia (Perth, Darwin, Port Hedland, Christmas Island), Indonesia and Singapore.

The DJSC system is created by linking two existing cables: the Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) to the North West Cable System (NWCS), with an addition of 1000km cable from Port Hedland to the main trunk of the Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) and additional cost of AU$100million, supported by AU$7.9m contribution from the Northern Territory Government’s Terabit Territory strategy.

DJSC, ASC and NWCS are owned and operated by Australian operator Vocus. 

The DJSC system consists 4 fiber pairs, delivering 40Tbps of capacity between Australia and Asia, unlocking Darwin as a major new data hub for the Asia-Pacific and opening up the Pilbara mining region for low-latency connectivity into Singapore.

The DJSC system will interconnect with the in-progress terrestrial cable from Geraldton to Port Hedland under Vocus’ Project Horizon.

The Asia Connect Cable (ACC-1) System is new subsea cable linking Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines) with Australia (via Darwin seamlessly connecting to our Australian Terrestrial network), Timor Leste, Guam, and through to Los Angeles, California, spanning approximately 18,000 kms.

The ACC-1 system is expected to comprise 16 fibre pairs. The project is estimated to cost US$700million.

The ACC-1 system is initiated by an Australian start-up company Inligo Networks.

Inligo Networks was established in 2020 and acquired a telecommunications carrier licence from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in 2021. The licence permits Inligo Networks to build, own and operate carriage services within Australia.

Inligo Networks has partnered with SacomTel which will provide land for the ACC1 cable landing station (CLS) near Dili, the capital and largest city of Timor Leste, also known as East Timor. Inligo Networks will manage international connections for Sacomtel and East Timor, and will connect he newly established Sacomtel data centre in Dili.

Inligo Networks will land the ACC1 cable system at a new purpose built Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Darwin, directly connect several Data Centres in Darwin into the cable system. The Cable Landing Station will also provide a termination point for Inligo's domestic Unite Cable System seamlessly connecting Darwin with Adelaide and providing terrestrial connections for customers in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Asia Connect Cable, Image Credit: Inligo Networks

The TEA-2 terrestrial cable system is an upgraded cable system of the TEA, connecting major cities in Europe and Hong Kong, Beijing, etc, across Russia via RosTelecom's state-of-the-air terrestrial cable system and connecting to backbones of either China Unicom or China Telecom at the China-Russia Border in Heihe.

The TEA-2 cable system forms an affordable and stable Eurasia broadband internet infrastructure.

The TEA-3 terrestrial cable system runs across Russia via RosTelecom's terrestrial backbone and connecting to backbones of Chinese operators at the China-Russia Border in Manzhouli (Manchuria).

The TEA-4 terrestrial cable system is the latest serie of Rostelecom's TEA terrestrial cable route, including TEA, TEA-2, TEA-3 and TEA-4.

The TEA-4 connects Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China, through the China-Mongolia Border in  Erlianhaote (Erenhot).

The TEA-4 shortens latency from China to Europe via Rostelecom's backbone network, being comparable to the Europe-Russia-Mongolia-Asia (ERMC)  and the TMP Transit-Mongolia terrestrial routes. 

The Europe-Russia-Japan (ERJ) is an Eurasia cable route seamlessly combining TTK's terrestrial backbone network across Russia to Europe, and the HSCS cable system between Russia and Japan jointly built by TTK and NTT.

The HSCS was upgraded with 200 Gbps DWDM technology for a total system capacity up to 5.4 Tbps in 2018.

The ERJ cable offers a low latency route from Europe to Japan, with latency (RTD) of 144ms between Tokyo and Amsterdan.

TTK offers other Eurasia terrestrial cable routes to China, Europe-Russia-Asia (ERA)  and Europe-Russia-Mongolia-Asia (ERMC) .

The Europe-Russia-Asia (ERA) is an  Eurasia terrestrial cable system connecting Europe to China across Russia, jointly built by TTK and China Unicom.

TTK and China Unicom build the cross border terrestrial cable system at Manzhouli (Manchuria) in China and Zabaikalsk in Russia.

The ERA cable system is capable of 100Gbps DWDM, offering a low latency Eurasia route: 

• Hong Kong to Frankfurt: 156ms
• China/Russia Border (CRB) to Frankfurt: 98ms.

The Europe-Russia-Mongolia-China (ERMC) is an Eurasia terrestrial cable route connecting Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China, jointly operated by TTK and China Unicom via, Mongolia Railway.

TTK, Monglia Railway Authority (RailCom, now GEMNET) and China Unicom operate the ERMC terrestrial cable system via Erlianhaote (Erenhot ) in China-Mongolia Border.

In Mongolia, EMRC runs over 2 parallel optical cable routes of approximately 1000km each, along the railway connecting southern and northern borders of Mongolia along Sukhbaatar-Darkhan-Ulaanbaatar-Choir-Zamyin Uud. It forms OTN network with ROADM nodes and reserve protection in Mongolia.

The ERMC cable system is capable of 100Gbps DWDM, offering a low latency Eurasia route: 

• Beijing to Frankfurt: 109ms
• Hong Kong to Frankfurt: 146ms.

TTK offers other Eurasia terrestrial cable routes, Europe-Russia-Asia (ERA)  to China, and Europe-Russia-Japan (ERJ) to Japan.

The TMP Transit-Mongolia is a low latency Eurasia terrestrial cable from China to Europe, via Mongolia and Russia.

The TMP terrestrial cable is operated by China Telecom Global (CTG) and its partners in Mongolia and Russia, through the China-Mongolia Border at Erlianhaote (Erenhot ), in a similar route as the Europe-Russia-Mongolia-Asia (ERMC) terrestrial cable.

The TMP terrestrial cable features ultra low latency, with 

• Shanghai to Frankfurt: 158ms
• Hong Kong to Frankfurt: 169ms

The Diverse Route for European and Asian Markets (DREAM) is an 8,700km Eurasia terrestrial cable route conneting Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and China, with extension from the Kazakhstan-China border (Khorgos) to Hong Kong through fiber cable backbones across China.

The DREAM terrestrial cable route was launched in 2013 by MegaFon with a partnership with Kazakhtelecom.

The northern segment of the DREAM route offers a diversity by connecting to the Baltic Highway cable, with 3000km route from Tallinn in Estonia to Frankfurt in Germany via Riga (Latvia), Vilnius (Lithuania), Warsaw (Poland), and Berlin (Germany). DREAM also offers diversity at the Kazakhstan-Russian-border, connecting to MegaFon’s backbone. And through MegaFon's backbone, the DREAM also connects to the South-West Asia Network (SWAN), which links Russia to the Caucasus region and Turkey. Launched in Q1 2015 with an initial capacity of 100 Gbps, SWAN is the result of a partnership between MegaFon and Georgian fixed-line operator SilkNet.

The DREAM terrestrial cable features low latency solutions from China to Europe, with

• Hong Kong to Frankfurt: 154ms
• Shanghai to Frankfurt: 142ms
• Kazakhstan-China border to Frankfurt: 87ms

The Super TSR (Transit Silk Road) is an ultra low latency Eurasia terrestrial cable route via the China-Kazakhstan Gateway, Khorgos.

The Super TSR was launched by China Telecom Global (CTG) through a partnership with a Kazakhstan operator in 2016.

The Super TSR features ulta low latency:

• Shanghai to Frankfurt: 147ms
• Hong Kong to Frankfurt: 159ms

TRANSKZ is a terrestrial route linking Europe and Asia, and offers low latency and protected services between all major European markets to China and Hong Kong.

TRANSKZ was launched in 2016 in partnership between RETN and Transtelecom JSC.

TEA NEXT is a new generation fiber-optic communication line connecting Russian western and eastern borders, launched by Rotelecom.

TEA NEXT consists of 96 dark fiber lines available to international operators and global OTT companies for Europe to Asia (Eurasia) connectivity.

The TEA NEXT will be constructed based on the cutting edge Ultra Low Loss optical fibre which allow for use of all advanced long-distance DWDM equipment. The mainline will pass along the shortest route from West to East of the country with stations in largest cities. 

The TEA NEXT will offer the shortest latency,  Round Trip Delay (RTD ) of no more than 85 ms from Moscow to Vladivostok and 55 ms from Moscow to Khyagt.

The TEA NEXT project is developed by Rostelecom’s newly founded company Atlas which will be supported by financial and strategic partners, including one of the Russian banks and a number of international investors and communications operators. Total investment will amount to US$500 million within several years. 

The TEA NEXT project is expected to be completed in 2023-2024.

The Middle East-Europe terrestrial system (MEETS) is a 1,400km terrestrial cable network  which connects the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Eurasia. It is a highly reliable diverse route, built using the latest technology, and addresses the growing need for high bandwidth services and offers unique access to the Gulf region.

The MEETS consortium comprises Vodafone Qatar, du, Zain and Zajil. Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C. is in Qatar, du is the landing party in the UAE, Zain in Saudi Arabia, and Zajil in Bahrain and Kuwait.

The MEETS network is built alongside the existing  power transmission network, the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) electrical transmission system.  it is cost-effective and reliable, providing reduced service latency and geographic diversity across the Middle East.

The MEETS network is designed with 100G optical transport network (OTN) technology, offering connectivity in the GCC region with a design capacity in excess of 2.3Tbps, and an initial capacity of 200Gbps, deployed with Ciena’s converged packet optical networking solutions.

The MEETS network has the following access and landing points:

• Kuwait City, Kuwait
• Ghunan, Saudi Arabia
• Jasra, Bahrain
• Dubai, UAE
• Doha, Qatar

Vodafone East West Turkey Connect Fiber Cable System (EWTC) is a terrestrial fibre infrastructure across Turkey, enabling connectivity between the Eastern and Western borders.

Vodafone East West Turkey Connect Fiber Cable System (EWTC) enables a viable and cost-effective alternative for carriers and global enterprises demanding
high-speed connectivity between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, enables a shorter, direct terrestrial route with low latency and RTD (Round-Trip Delay).

In August 2007, Djibouti Telecom SA initiated a project to build a terrestrial fiber optic linking Djibouti to Ethiopia. 

This  Djibouti-Ethiopia terrestrial cable currently carries approximately 1.5 Gbps traffic. A backup network will be routed to the West Central Border of Djibouti (Galafi).

There is also a fiber protection on OPGW Power cable and the railway network.

The MONET is a 10,556km submarine cable system hooking up Boca Raton in Florida with Fortaleza and Santos in Brazil.

The MONET cable system consists of six fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 60Tbps (100Gbps x 100 wavelengths x 6 FPs).

The MONET consortium comprises of Google, Brazil’s Algar Telecom, Uruguay’s Antel, and Angola’s Angola Cables.

The MONET cable system lands at:

• Boca Raton CLS (Equinix MI3), Florida, USA
• Fortaleza CLS (owned by Angola Cables), Brazil.
• Santos CLS, Brazil. Google has 100% ownership interest for the Santos CLS through its subsidiary Google Infraestrutura Brasil Ltda.

The MONET cable system is supplied by SubCom.

The MONET cable system was ready for service on December 6, 2017.

The América Móvil Submarine Cable System (AMX-1) spans 17500km, connecting 7 countires, including the United States, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico, with 11 cable landing stations in Jacksonville and Miami, in the United States; Puerto Barrios in Guatemala; Barranquilla and Cartagena in Colombia; Fortaleza, Salvador de Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic; San Juan in Pureto Rico and Cancun in Mexico.

The AMX-1 cable system is wholly owned by América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (“América Móvil”) and its eight subsidiaries in the landing countries. The initial investment of the AMX-1 cable system costs about US$500million.

The AMX-1 cable system was launched for service in Dec 2013.

For more information, please refer to AMX-1 Cable System Overview.

BRUSA, a new submarine cable nearly 11,000 km in length linking Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza (Brazil) with San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Virginia Beach (USA), consists of 8 fiber pairs, with initial design capacity of 135 x 100 Gbps per fiber pair and ROADM technology. 

BRUSA is a private cable built and operated by Telefónica. The BRUSA cable system was launched for commercial service in Auguest  2018.

The BRUSA cable systems and the MAREA cable system jointly built by Facebook, Microsoft and Telxius are both landed at Virginia Beach cable landing station and  extended the backhaul capacity into Equinix DC2 and other data centers.

The Fiber Optic Austral (FOA) is the southernmost submarine cable in the world, connecting Las Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes in southern Chile.

The FOA cable system has a design capacity of 16 Tb/s and a length of 2,800 kilometers. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

The FOA cable system is owned and operated by CTR (Comunicación y Telefonía Rural S.A.), and supplied by Huawei Marine.

ARBR is a 4-fiber pair, 48Tbps, direct POP-to-POP subsea cable system Buenos Aires (Argentina), and São Paulo (Brazil). With an interconnection with Seabras-1, ARBR enables the newest and most direct route between Argentina and the U.S.

It was reported earlier that ARBR to be deployed with C+L band technology. But such solution should be given up in the ARBR cable system. 

With Seaborn and The Werthein Group as owners, ARBR will be Argentina’s first and only transoceanic cable for Argentina that is not controlled by a large incumbent telecom company.

Construction is scheduled to commence in 2020.

The Curie submarine cable system is a four-fibre-pair and 10,500km cable connecting Los Angeles, California, and Valparaiso, Chile, with a branching unit to Panama City, Panama.

The Curie cable system is designed with 18Tbps per fiber pair and a total system design capacity of 72 Tbps.

Named after physicist and chemist Marie Curie, the Curie cable system will make Google the first major non-telecom company to build a private intercontinental cable. Google claims it will be the first new cable to land in Chile in almost 20 years, and will become the largest single data pipe connecting the country.

In the US, Curie cable terminates at Equinix LA4 data center and cable landing station, where hosts another submarine cable invested by Google, PLCN.

In Chile, Curie cable lands at CenturyLink Cable Landing Station at Subida Leopoldo Carvallo 350, Valparaíso, and connects to Quilicura Google Data Center in Santiago, Chile. 

In Panama, Sparkle lands the cable at its Panama Digital Gateway, the first green data center in Panama, as Sparkle acquires one fiber pair on the Curie cable system.

The Curie cable system is supplied by TE SubCom. The Curie cable system was ready for service on November 15, 2019.

GlobeNet submarine cable system spans 23,500 km serving North and South America with ring protection.

GlobeNet cable system lands at the following Cable Landing Stations (CLSs):

• Barranquilla, Colombia
• Boca Raton, Florida, USA
• Fortaleza, Brazil
• Maiquetía, Venezuela
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• St David’s, Bermuda
• Tuckerton, New Jersey, USA

GlobeNet cable system offers direct low latency services in the following routes:

• New York to São Paulo <108ms
• New York to Rio de Janeiro <101ms
• New York to Bogota <78ms
• Miami to São Paulo <113ms
• Miami to Rio de Janeiro <106ms

GlobeNet cable system was luanched for service in 2001.

GlobeNet is a portfolio company of BTG Pactual Infrastructure Fund II.

Malbec is a new 2,500 km submarine cable that links the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and will have a branching unit to reach Porto Alegre, Brazil.

By connecting Argentina to GlobeNet’s network in Brazil, the new infrastructure will provide seamless connectivity between the Southern Cone of South America and the United States. When completed, it will be the first new submarine cable route to reach the Argentinian coast since 2001.

The Malbec cable system is co-owned by GlobeNet and Facebook, and it will be operated by GlobeNet. "Malbec" is named after the renowned Argentinian wine.

The Malbec cable system has been put into service as of June 1, 2021.

Kanawa cable system is a 1,746-kilometer cable linking Kourou in French Guiana and Schœlcher in Martinique, with two fiber pairs and 100*100 Gbps DWDM technology, delivering up to 10 Tbps capacity per fiber pair.

Kanawa means “large canoe” in the language of the native Kalina who once populated the West Indies. 

Kanawa cable system increases in traffic and diversify the connection points to enable a better quality of service between French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Kanawa cab;e system interconnects with the existing ECFS (East Caribbean Fiber System) to offer a direct link between French Guiana and the American continent.

Kanawa cable system is built, owned and operated by Orange, supplied by ASN, with an total investment of €35 million.

Kanawa cable system was ready for service in January 2019.

Tannat cable system is a 2000km subsea cable connecting Uruguay (Maldonado), Brazil (Santos) and Argentina (Las Toninas).

The Tannat cable consists of 6 fiber pairs, with an initial estimated design capacity of 90 Tbps, supplied by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks.

The Tannat consortium comprises Antel Uruguay, Google.

At Santos cable landing station, the Tannat cable system can interconnect with the Monet cable system to Boca Raton in the US and the Junior cable system to Rio de Janeiro.

Telxius has acquired fiber pairs in Tannat and Junior cable systems, and interconnects Junior with Brusa at  Rio de Janeiro CLS to establish a main connectivity route between the U.S. and key hubs in South America as a continuation of Brusa (Virginia Beach – Rio de Janeiro) and Junior (Rio de Janeiro – Santos).

The segment connecting Santos, Brazil, to Maldonado, Uruguay has been operational since mid-2018. 

Google and Antel announced in July 2019 to extended Tannat cable system to the nearby coastal city of Las Toninas in the Buenos Aires province, and the project was completed in December 2020.

Junior is a 390 km subsea cable connecting Rio de Janeiro to Santos in Brazil, ready for service in 2018.

Junior cable is technically Google’s first private owned subsea cable, as a domestic subsea cable in Brazil. Google has invested in other private international subsea cables, including Curie, Dunant, Equiano, etc.

At Santos cable landing station, Junior, Tannat and Monet cable systems interconnect seamlessly, to form key infrastructure of Google could platform connecting the US, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina along the coast of Atlantic. 

Telxius has acquired fiber pairs on Tannat and Junior cable systems, and interconnects Junior with Brusa at Rio de Janeiro CLS to establish a main connectivity route between the U.S. and key hubs in South America with Brusa (Virginia Beach – Rio de Janeiro) + Junior (Rio de Janeiro – Santos) + Tannat (Santos- Las Toninas, Argentina).

The South Pacific Submarine Cable (SPSC) is a 7,300 km new undersea cable in the Pacific coast of Latin America, connecting Puerto San José (Guatemala) to Valparaíso (Chile), with additional landing points in Salinas (Ecuador), Lurín (Peru) and Arica (Chile). 

The SPSC cable system is jointly built by Telxius and Claro (América Móvil). 

Telxius has its own commercial name of the South Pacific Submarine Cable (SPSC), called "Mistral".

The South Pacific Submarine Cable (SPSC) system consists of 6 fiber pairs and has a potential system capacity of 132 Tbps.

The Pacific cable system is the first undersea cable since 2001 to connect Puerto San José (Guatemala) with Valparaíso (Chile)

The Pacific cable system was ready for service on August 10, 2021.

The Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC) cable system is a 4,600 miles (7,500 km) of submarine cable. The MAC cable system consists of two optical fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 1.3 Tbps.

The MAC cable lands at:

• Brookhaven Cable Landing Station, NY;
• Hollywood, FL; and
• St. Croix, U.S.Virgin Islands.

The MAC cable system was built by Global Crossing, ready for service in June 2000.

The MAC cable system is now part of CenturyLink's network assets, as well as Pan-American Crossing (PAC), South American Crossing (SAC), and Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1), AC-2/Yellow, Hawaii Island Fiber Network (HIFN), etc.

The Pan-American Crossing (PAC) submarine cable network spans more than 6,000 route miles (10,000 km), connecting the United States to Mexico, Central America, and South America. The PAC cable system comprises a self-healing ring (two fiber pairs) and WDM technology, with an intial design capacity of 20Gbps.

The PAC cable system was built by Global Crossing, ready for service in March 2000.

The PAC cable system is now part of CenturyLink's network assets, as well as Mid-American Crossing (MAC), South American Crossing (SAC), and Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1), AC-2/Yellow, Hawaii Island Fiber Network (HIFN), etc.

The PAC cable lands at:

• Grover Beach, California, United States
• Tijuana, Mexico
• Mazatlán, Mexico
• Unqui, Costa Rica
• Fort Amador, Panama
  
  
  

The South American Crossing (SAC) cable system includes undersea and terrestrial fiber optic ring network of projectapproximately 12,000 route miles (20,000 km).

The SAC cable system forms a four-fiber pair ring using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology.

The SAC cable system was built by Global Crossing, ready for service in September 2000.

The subsea portions of the SAC cable system lands at:

• Las Toninas (Argentina),
• Fortaleza (Brazil),
• Rio de Janeiro (Brazil),
• Santos (Brazil),
• St. Croix (US Virgin Islands),
• Puerto Viejo, Venezuela
• Colon, Panama
• Fort Amador (Panama)
• Buenaventura (Colombia)
• Lurin (Peru),
• Valparaiso (Chile)

In 2015, Level 3 added an extension to the SAC cable system with a new branch to a cable station at Punta Bazan in Buenaventura on Colombia's Pacific coast near Cali. The new SAC Colombia spur has a design capacity of 4.5 Tbps and initial capacity of 400 Gbps.

Terrestrial segments of the SAC cable system connect to most major South American cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, Cali, and Bogota. The SAC ring network completes on its southern-most end by a terrestrial link across the Andes between Las Toninas and Valparaiso.

The SAC cable system is now part of CenturyLink's network assets, as well as Mid-American Crossing (MAC), Pan-American Crossing (PAC), and Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1), AC-2/Yellow, Hawaii Island Fiber Network (HIFN), etc.

The AMERICAS-II Cable System (AMERICAS-II) is a 8,373 km submarine cable from USA to Brazil. The AMERICAS-II cable system was ready for service in August 2000.

The Americas-II consourtium comprises:

• AT&T,
• Level 3,
• Verizon,
• Sprint,
• Cable & Wireless Communications,
• Columbus Networks,
• Embratel,
• CANTV,
• Centennial of Puerto Rico,
• Corporacion Nacional de Telecommunicaciones,
• Telecom Argentina,
• Orange,
• Portugal Telecom,
• Telecom Italia Sparkle,
• Tata Communications.

The Americas-II cable system has 9 cable landing points and terminal stations (Segment T) at:

• T9: Hollywood, Florida, United States
• T8: Miramar, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• T7: Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
• T6: Le Lamentin, Martinique
• T5: Willemstad, Curaçao
• T4: Camuri, Venezuela
• T3: Chaguaramas, Trinidad
• T2: Cayenne, French Guiana
• T1: Fortaleza, Brazil

The Americas-II cable system coomprises 13 submarine segments:

• The trunk — segments S1, S3, S5, S9, S11, S12, and S13 — consists of four fiber pairs operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength.
• The branches — segments S2, S4, S6, S7, S8, and S10 — consist of two fiber pairs operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength.

The AMERICAS-II cable system consists of three interconnected rings (North, South, and West Systems), each operating at 2.5Gbps per wavelength collapsed ring configurations, initially in separate collapsed ring configurations, and a dedicated link between Curacao and Venezue not operating in a collapsed ring configuration.

Each fiber pair in each of the three rings has a capacity of thirty-two 155Mbps Basic System Modules (BSM), with each BSM containing 63 Minimum Investment Units (MIUs) and equipped at the outset for a capacity of 1008 MIUs.

The North System contains four fiber pairs in a collapsed ring configuration with ten wavelengths per fiber pair resulting in a total capacity of 20,160 MIUs for operation and 20,160 MIUs for protection, the cable station at Hollywood, Florida, an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs directly interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Hollywood, Florida.

The South System capacity supports the South Ring System and the Southwest System. The South Ring System contains four fiber pairs in a collapsed ring configuration with eight wavelengths per fiber pair resulting in a total capacity of 16,128 MIUs for operation and 16,128 MIUs for protection, the cable station at Fortaleza, Brazil, an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, the Branch cable stations or an appropriate share of those cable stations, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs.

The West System contains four fiber pairs interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Puerto Rico, with only two fiber pairs initially equipped with four wavelengths each, in a bi-directional collapsed ring configuration, resulting in a total capacity of 4,032 MIUs for operation and 4,032 MIUs for protection (including the cable station at Puerto Rico), an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs directly interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Miramar, Puerto Rico.

MAYA-1 is a 4400km submarine cable system connecting the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, from Hollywood, Florida on the southern tip of the United States to Tolu, Colombia on the northern tip of South America.

The MAYA-1 cable system was ready for service in October, 2000.

Utilizing Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) and Direct Wave Access (DWA) with Erbium-Doped-Fiber-Amplifier (EDFA) technology, the MAYA-1 cable system has a system design ring capacity of 50Gbps of SDH capacity and 1910Gbps of DWA capacity after the upgrade in 2017.

The MAYA-1 consortium comprises: 

• AT&T,
• Sprint,
• Verizon Business,
• Tata Communications,
• Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC),
• Hondutel, 
• CANTV,
• Telefonica,
• BT,
• Orbitel, 
• MarcaTel,
• RSL Telecom (Panama)
• etc.

The MAYA-1 cable system consists of two segments (S and T) and various subsegments. Segment S includes the whole of the submarine cable and associated equipment. Segment T includes all of the cable stations and related equipment.

The MAYA-1 cable system deploys an interconnected collapsed ring configuration that contains two fiber pairs with five branching units connecting to the landing points.

Segment S consists of two fiber optic pairs initially operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength in one interconnected collapsed ring configuration. The initial design capacity of each fiber pair is equivalent to 48 Basic System Modules (BSMs), with a maximum upgrade capacity equivalent to 128 BSMs.  The MAYA-1 cable system has been upgraded to support a system design ring capacity of 50G of SDH Capacity and 1910G of DWA Capacity.

The MAYA-1 cable system has seven terminal stations and segments T:

• T1: Hollywood, FL, United States
• T2: Cancún, Mexico
• T3: Puerto Cortes, Honduras
• T4: Half Moon Bay, Cayman Islands
• T5: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
• T6: Maria Chiquita, Panama
• T7: Tolu, Colombia

The Americas Region Caribbean Optical-Ring System (ARCOS-1) is a 8,700 km submarine cable system connecting 24 landing points in 15 countries, including the United States, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.

The ARCOS-1 Consortium comprises ARCOS-1 USA, Inc and its wholly-owned direct subsidiary A.SurNet, Inc, and eighteen (18) international carriers, including:

1. Axtel S.A.B. de C.V. [Mexico]
2. United Telecommunications Services, N.V. [Curacao]
3. Alestra Comunicacion SRL de CV [Mexico]
4. The Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited [The Bahamas]
5. Belize Telemedia Limited [Belize]
6. Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela [Venezuela]
7. Compañía Dominicana de Telefonos [Dominican Republic]
8. Empresa Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones Sociedad Anonima [Nicaragua]
9. Empresa Hondureña de Telecomunicaciones [Honduras]
10. Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad [Costa Rica]
11. Level 3 Colombia S.A. [Colombia]
12. Internexa S.A.E.S.P. [Colombia]
13. Verizon Business [USA]
14. IC Investment Management, LLP [Colombia]
15. Telecarrier, S.A. [Panama]
16. Global Interlink [Bermuda]
17. Tricom, S.A. [Dominican Republic]
18. PREPA International Wholesale Transport, Inc. [Puerto Rico]

ARCOS-1 USA and A.SurNet and their affiliates hold 96% of the voting and ownership interests in the ARCOS-1 cable system, with the remaining ownership held by 18 international carriers, each with nominal ownership interests.

A.SurNet owns and operates the ARCOS-1 cable landing station in North Miami Beach, Florida.

After various acquisitions and transfers, ARCOS-1 USA and A.SurNet as well as the cable landing station in North Miami Beach and the majority of the ARCOS-1 cable system are now controlled by Liberty Latin America Ltd., a Bermuda company.

The ARCOS-1 cable system has twelve (12) fiber pairs on repeaterless segments and three (3) fiber pairs on repeatered segments, and a current end of life capacity of 8.4 Tbps.

The ARCOS-1 Cable Landing Station includes:

1. North Miami Beach, Florida, Estados Unidos
2. Cancún, México
3. Tulum, México
4. Ladyville, Belice
5. Puerto Barrios, Guatemala
6. Puerto Cortés, Honduras
7. Trujillo, Honduras
8. Puerto Lempira, Honduras
9. Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
10. Bluefields, Nicaragua
11. Puerto Limón, Costa Rica
12. María Chiquita, Panamá
13. Ustupu, Panamá
14. Cartagena, Colombia
15. Riohacha, Colombia
16. Punto Fijo, Venezuela
17. Willemstad, Curazao
18. San Juan, Puerto Rico
19. Punta Cana, República Dominicana
20. Puerto Plata, República Dominicana
21. Providenciales, Islas Turcas y Caicos
22. Isla de Crooked, Bahamas
23. Cat Island, Bahamas
24. Nassau, Bahamas

ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension 

A U.S. law prohibiting doing business with Cuba following the Cuban Revolution in 1959 prevented any U.S.-Cuban cable building. Finally in 2016, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped the last legal restrictions for a direct U.S.-Cuba cable. 

In 2018, ARCOS-1 USA filed the FCC an application to add a branch to Cuba and a cable landing station in Cojimar, Cuba (ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension). The cable landing will be accomplished by creating a branch from an existing branching unit of the ARCOS-1 Cable that lies approximately fifty-six (56) kilometers off the coast of Cuba to a beach manhole (“BMH”) in Cojimar, Cuba, located at N23˚10’ 1.55’’, 82˚18’ 54.58’’W. The new branch shall be designated as “Segment 26” of the ARCOS-1 Cable. The ARCOS-1 Cable will then extend through a cable land route to an existing cable landing station (“CLS”) in Cojimar, Cuba (the coordinates of the property are: Nlocated at N23˚9’ 44.98’’，82˚18’ 45.97’’W. The ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension will consist of two fiber pairs and will have an initial capacity of 100Gbps and planned capacity of 1.6 Tbps. 

ARCOS-1 USA and A.SurNet and their affiliates will own 96% of the capacity on the ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension, with the remaining four percent of the capacity to be offered to the 18 ARCOS-1 consortium members corresponding to the percentage commensurate with their ownership interests in the cable system. Columbus Networks Limited (CNL) or a wholly-owned and controlled subsidiary of CNL will be the landing party in Cojimar, Cuba. The cable landing station in Cuba and the duct (cable land route) from the beach manhole to the Cojimar, Cuba cable landing station is owned by Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA), the incumbent, state-owned telecommunications provider in Cuba. The physical cable inside the duct will be owned by CNL or an affiliate of CNL. ETECSA will provide the Cuban cable landing station with updated telecommunications equipment to operate SEGMENT 26, and ETECSA will acquire an indefeasible right of use (IRU) on some capacity on SEGMENT 26 from CNL. Neither CNL nor its subsidiaries are, or will become, a licensed telecommunications carrier in Cuba. 

If approved, the ARCOS-1 would have allowed for the first commerical fiber optic cable to directly connect the U.S. and Cuba.  There are an existing cable between Florida and the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (the GTMO-1 cable system), and a cable from Guantanamo Bay to Puerto Rico (the GTMO-PR cable system).

Unfortunately, Team Telecom recommended in November 2022 that the FCC deny the application for license for the ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension. 

The Guantanamo Bay to Dania Beach Submarine Fiber Optic Cable System (GTMO-1) is approximately 1530km (950miles), connecting the Defense Information System Network (DISN) Facilities at Miami FL and U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO), in order to supply high bandwidth to Department of Defense (DoD) activities at GTMO, and improve long-haul communications between the continental U.S. and GTMO.

According to the U.S. Federal Register, The GTMO-1 cable system involves two existing, shore-based U.S. naval facilities where the GTMO SFOC will be landed end-to-end. On the continental U.S. end, the cable will be landed at the U.S. Navy's South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (SFOMF) at Dania Beach, Florida; from there, the GTMO-1 cable system spans the entirety of Florida's Territorial Waters (3 nautical miles (nm)), extending through the U.S. Territorial Sea (12 nm) and Contiguous Zone (24 nm), with the majority of the cable system passing through a combination of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the Bahamian EEZ, and the Cuban EEZ to the nearshore landing at the American Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.

The GTMO-1 cable system is owned and operated by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The DISA is a Department of Defense (DoD) combat support agency under the direction, authority and control of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence.

The DISA leases commercial dark fiber to facilitate the terrestrial connection between SFOMF and the Network Access Point (NAP) of the Americas in Miami, Florida to provide DISN node-to-node connection.

In May 2014, the US DoD awarded Xtera Communications the contract to build the GTMO-1 cable system.  Xtera Communicationst announced in June 2014 that it won the $31,220,394 contract for the 950-mile submarine cable system without ever mentioning Guantánamo. Xtera subsequently was awarded a $3.7 million contract to build the ground stations for the Guantánamo Bay to Dania Beach Submarine Fiber Optic Cable System, with a cost of approximately $35 million. Later in August 2017, Xtera was awarded by the DoD a contract of approxiamately US$43million to build a new submarine cable connecting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and  Puerto Rico, i.e., the GTMO-PR cable system.

The GTMO-1 cable system was ready for service in February 2016. 

Currently, GTMO-1 cable system is the first submarine cable directly connecting the United States and Cuba, but it is not served for commerical use.

The Guantanamo Bay to Punta Salinas, Toa Baja, Puerto Rico Submarine Fiber Optic Cable System (GTMO-PR) is approximately 1,400 kilometers (756 nautical miles), connecting the Defense Information System Network (DISN) Facilities at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO) and  Ft. Buchanan, Puerto Rico, in order to supply high bandwidth to Department of Defense (DoD) activities at GTMO, and improve long-haul communications between the continental U.S., Puerto Rico and GTMO.

According to the U.S. Federal Register, The GTMO-PR cable system connects the Defense Information System Network (DISN) node located offshore at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), Cuba to the DISN node located in Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico. The GTMO-PR cable land into a pre-laid shore end stub cable (installed in 2016 as part of GMTO-1 cable project) ending 19 kilometers (10.26 nautical miles) offshore of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba to the DISN node located in Fort Buchanan, Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The landing location for Puerto Rico is the Puerto Rico Air National Guard (PRANG) Radar installation located in Punta Salinas, Toa Baja through a horizontally directional drilled (HDD) pipe. For the subsequent connection to the Army Reserves Base, Fort Buchanan in Bayamon.

The GTMO-PR cable system is owned and operated by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The DISA is a Department of Defense (DoD) combat support agency under the direction, authority and control of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence.

The DISA leases local circuit services to facilitate the terrestrial connection to the Army Reserves Base, Fort Buchanan in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The DISA also leases commercial dark fiber to facilitate the terrestrial connection between the GTMO-1 cable landing station and the Network Access Point (NAP) of the Americas in Miami, Florida. With GTMO-1 and GTMO-PR cable systems, DISN forms node-to-node connection between the continental U.S., Puerto Rico and GTMO.

In August 2017, Xtera was awarded by the DoD a contract of approxiamately US$43million to build the GTMO-PR cable system. Earlier in May 2014, the US DoD awarded Xtera the contract to build the GTMO-1 cable system.

The GTMO-PR cable system was ready for service in September 2019.

The GTMO-PR cable system is not served for commerical use. 

The Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS) is a 6000km submarine cable connecting Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, Aruba, Curacao, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

The PCCS consortium comprises:

• Cable & Wireless Communications (C&W Networks, a Liberty Latin America company)
• Setar,
• Cable Andino (Telconet),
• Telxius, and
• United Telecommunication Services (acquired by Liberty Latin America in 2019)

The PCCS has eight landing stations, including:

• Jacksonville, Florida, USA,
• Tortola, the British Virgin Island,
• San Juan, Puerto Rico,
• Hudishibana, Aruba,
• Cartagena, Colombia,
• Maria Chiquita, Panama,
• Balboa, Panama, and
• Manta, Ecuador.

The PCCS cable system consists of 9 segments, with 2 or 3 fiber pairs in most of the segments, and 8 fiber pairs in the segment between Tortola, BVI and Jacksonville, Florida. 

The PCCS cable system was initially designed with 8 fiber pair x 100 Gps x 100 wavelength DWDM technology, for the system capacity of 80 Tbps.

The PCCS cable system was supplied by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN), ready for service on July 31, 2015.

The Colombia-Florida Subsea Fiber (CFX-1) is a 2400km submarine cable connecting the United States, Columbia, and Jamaica.

The CFX-1 cable system has cable landing stations in:

• Boca Raton, Florida,
• Cartagena, Colombia,
• Morant Bay, Jamaica
• Copa Club, Jamaica

The CFX-1 cable system consists of one segment with repeaters connecting Cartagena and Boca Raton, and a branch without repeaters connecting to Morant Bay, and a second landing in Copa Club, Jamaica

The CFX-1 cable system contains 2 fiber pairs on its trunk connecting Cartagena and Boca Raton and branch to Morant Bay, and 12 fiber pairs on repeaterless segment between Morant Bay and Copa Club.

Currently, the CFX-1 has a system capacity up to 12Tbps.

The CFX-1 cable system was a private cable owned and operated by Columbus Networks, currently owned by Liberty Latin America (Liberty Latam).

The CFX-1 cable system was supplied by Tyco (now SubCom), ready for service in August 2008.

The Alternativa Bolivariana para los Pueblos de nuestra América (ALBA-1) is a 1860 km submarine cable linking Cuba, Jamaica and Venezuela.

The ALBA-1 cable system is the first subsea cable connecting Cuba to the outside world. 

The ALBA-1 cable project was first announced in January 2007, and completed in August 2012, activated with traffic in January 2013.

The ALBA-1 cable system is owned and operated by Venezuelan/Cuban joint venture Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe (TGC). TGC is 60% owned by state-run Telecom Venezuela with the remainder held by Cuba’s Telco Transbit.

The ALBA-1 cable lands at:

• Siboney beach, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
• La Guaira, Caracas, Venezuela
• Ocho Rios,  Jamaica

The ALBA-1 cable system has a design capacity of 5.12 Tbps.

Alcatel-Lucent, through its Chinese subsidiary Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, was awarded the contract to provide turn-key solution for the construction of the ALBA-1 cable system, with a final cost of US$70 million. The initial cost estimate, from October 2006, was $55 million: $35 million for the undersea portion and $20 million to extend the cable to the Cuban and Venezuelan networks in Havana and Caracas.

The ALBA-1 cable system is currenlty the only one commerical international cable system connecting Cuba to the world. Beside, there are GTMO-1 and  GTMO-PR submarine cable systems landing at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, not available for commercial use. And the ARCOS-1 Cuba Extension is still pending.

The South America-1 Cable Network (SAm-1) is a nearly 25,000 km subsea fiber-optic cable ring surrounding Latin America, including 22,000 km of submarine cable and 3,000 km of terrestrial links across Argentina, Chile and Guatemala.

The SAm-1 cable system is privately owned and operated by Telxius.

The SAm-1 cable system consists of four fiber pairs, initially designed with a self-healing ring architecture, capable of carrying 48x10 Gbps each and a system capacity of 1.92 Tbps. The SAm-1 was ready for service in March 2001.

The SAm-1 cable system has been upgraded to support 100Gbps wavelength, with a system capacity of 20Tbps since 2012.

The SAm-1 has the following cable landing stations:

• Boca Raton, Florida, United States
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
• Barranquilla, Colombia
• Fortaleza, Brazil
• Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Santos, São Paulo, Brazil
• Las Toninas, Argentina
• Valparaíso, Chile
• Arica, Chile
• Lurín District, Peru
• Máncora, Perur
• Manta, Ecuador
• Puerto San José, Guatemala
• Puerto Barrios, Guatemala

Caribbean Express (CX) is a new build submarine cable system that is being developed by Ocean Networks. 

The Caribbean Express (CX) cable system will connect Points of Presence between West Palm Beach (Florida) and Balboa (Panama) with branch connections to Mexico and Columbia. In addition, the CX cable system will have future connectivity to Cuba, Grand Cayman, Guatemala, Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The CX system will utilize the latest Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) technology and have 18 fiber pairs. 

This strategic system will fill a requirement for the emerging markets of Central America by providing low latency connectivity to the NAP of Americas in Miami (Florida) and the Jacksonville (Florida) NAP. The CX cable system will be the only system in the Caribbean region that can offer full fiber pairs to the market.

The CX cable system is scheduled ready for service in Q1 2024. 

The Firmina subsea cable spans 14,517 kilometers (9,020 miles), connecting the East Coast of the United States to Las Toninas, Argentina, with additional landings in Praia Grande, Brazil, and Punta del Este, Uruguay. The Firmina subsea cable is the first U.S. system with a direct landing in Uruguay and one of the few subsea cables connecting the United States with Argentina – beyond GlobeNet (via Malbec), SAm-1, and SAC.

The Firmina cable is named after Maria Firmina dos Reis (1825 - 1917), a Brazilian abolitionist and author whose 1859 novel, Úrsula, depicted life for Afro-Brazilians under slavery. A mixed-race woman and intellectual, Firmina is considered Brazil’s first novelist. 

The Firmina cable system is privately owned and invested by Google through its subsidiary GU Holdings Inc, being the landing party and contracted with DC BLOX, Telxius, ANTEL and Lumen as landing service providers for the following Cable Landing Stations:

• Myrtle Beach CLS: a new cable landing station in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, owned by DC BLOX.
• Praia Grande CLS: an existing cable landing station in the city of Santos, Brazil, owned by Telxius.
• Punta del Este CLS: a new cable landing station in Punta del Este, Uruguay, owned by ANTEL (Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones), a state-owned operator in Uruguay. In December 2022, the President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou formally approved Google to land and operate the Firmina submarine cable in the country, following an inspection of almost two years.
• Las Toninas CLS: an existing cable landing station in Las Toninas, Argentina, owned by Lumen Technologies through its subsidiary CenturyLink Argentina S.A.  Las Toninas is located about 160 miles south of Buenos Aires.

The Firmina cable system consists of the following segments:

• Main Trunk: from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Las Toninas, Argentina, with 16 fiber pairs and a cable length of 13,413 kilometers (8,334 miles ).
• Brazil Branch: from a branching unit  to Praia Grande, Brazil (state of São Paulo), with 24 fiber pairs and a cable length of 580 kilometers (360 miles).
• Uruguay Branch: from a branching unit to Punta del Este, Uruguay, with 12 fiber pairs and a cable length of 524 kilometers (326 miles).
• Two Stubbed Branches:
  • one points towards Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic and located on the high seas, with 12 fiber pairs
  • the other points towards Fortaleza, Brazil and located in Brazil’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), with 16 fiber pairs

The Firmina cable system will have a total system capacity of 240Tbps for its 16-FP main trunk, or 15 Tbps per fiber pair.

SubCom is the supplier of Firmina cable project.

The Firmina cable system is expected to be ready for service by the end of 2023.

Deep Blue One is a 2,000 km cable connecting French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, with the opportunity to connect offshore oil and gas rigs on the back of the industry boom in the Caribbean and Latin America region. The French Guiana leg to Trinidad is 1,600 km long. 

Deep Blue One has five branching units, with two to eight fibre pairs in each segment, offering a minimum of 12Tbps capacity per fibre pair.

Deep Blue One cable is routed to be able to connect the many offshore oil and gas rigs and the build will include new cable landings in Trinidad, Tobago – with a new route between Trinidad and Tobago – and Suriname.

Digicel, a leading operator in the Caribbean and headquartered in Jamaica, and Orange partner on the Deep Blue One.

Orange acts as landing party in Cayenne for the French Guiana branch and operates the Cable landing station on behalf of Digicel while its subsidiary Orange Marine will be in charge of laying the cable. And Deep Blue One will complement Orange existing fully owned 1746 km long Kanawa cable, which was commissioned early 2019 as well as Orange’s existing networks based on Americas-2, ECFS, CBUS. This new system offers a secure and adaptive solution in the region to respond to increasing broadband customer requirements. 

Deep Blue One cable project is expected to complete in early 2024, with cable installation beginning in mid-2023.

The Carnival Submarine Network-1 (CSN-1) is a 4,500 km submarine cable connecting Ecuador, Panama, Colombia and the Florida West coast in the USA, plus potentially other countries within Central and South America.

CSN-1 is developed by Telconet, the Ecuador-based infrastructure and telecom operator.

Telconet selects Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to construct CSN-1, with supply contract in force (CIF) in March 2022.

CSN-1 will utilize ASN’s field proven, state of the art, high fiber count, SDM submarine cable technology. The cable will adhere to the industry’s Open Cable architecture, further supporting its goal to be carrier neutral and provide open access in each of the CSN-1 landing stations.

The Arimao submarine cable system is a 2500km subsea cable to connect Cuba and Martinique.

The Arimao submarine cable system is deployed by ETECSA, the state-owned telecommunications monopoly in Cuba, and ORANGE, through its subsidiary Orange Marine, supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN).

ETECSA and Orange have signed an agreement on the Arimao project in December 2022. And the system is expected to be ready for service by 2023. 

Upon completion, the Arimao submarine cable system will provide Cuba with a new route for international services, geographically diversifying the current connectivity. 

Prior to the Arimao project, ETECSA tried to land ARCOS-1 cable system in Cojimar, Cuba, but it was blocked by the United States in November 2022.

There is now only one international subsea cable connection to Cuba, the ALBA-1 cable system connecting Venezuela and Jamaica with Cuba.

The South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) is a 6,000-km submarine cable system connecting Kribi, Cameroon with Fortaleza, Brazil，with a branch to Equatorial Guinea.

The SAIL cable system consists of four fiber pairs, each capable of transmitting 100 wavelengths with a bandwidth of 100 Gbit/s and delivering a design capacity of 32 Tbps.

The SAIL cable system is invested by CAMTEL of Cameroon, and China Unicom as the landing party in Brazil., Huawei Marine is the turn-key solutions provider for the SAIL cable system. 

In Brazil, the SAIL cable system terminates at Telxius Fortaleza Cable Landing Station, seamlessly connecting with BRUSA and Sam-1 onwards to the US.

Marine installation of the SAIL cable system was successfully completed on September 4^th, 2018.

SAIL cable system enables connectivity among the following routes:

• São Paulo - Lagos 
• São Paulo - Cape Town 
• São Paulo - Johannesburg
• São Paulo - Lisbon
• São Paulo - London
• Miami - Lagos 
• Miami - Cape Town 
• Miami - Johannesburg
• Asburn, Virginia- Lagos 
• Asburn, Virginia - Cape Town 
• Asburn, Virginia - Johannesburg

The South Atlantic Express (SAEx1) is a 72 Tbit/s submarine cable system connecting South Africa directly to the US, linking Cape Town in South Africa, Fortaleza in Brazil and Virginia Beach, Virginia in the US, with branches to Namibia and Saint Helena.

The SAEx1 cable system is building by SAEx International Ltd, based in Mauritius with a subsidiary company (SAEx SA (Pty) Ltd) in South Africa, is building the South Atlantic Express (SAEx) cable. The company is also planning the  South Asia Express (SAEx2) , to form a unique 25000km submarine cable connecting Asia, Africa, South America and North America.

MainOne cable system is a 7,000km submarine cable with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal, with reserved branching units Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal and Ivory Coast.

MainOne cable system is the first private subsea cable along the West African coastline, owned by MainOne Cable Company based in Nigeria. The MainOne cable was satrted to construct in February 2008 and launched for commercial service in 2010. MainOne cable system was supplied by TE SubCom.

MainOne cable system has been proven to provide capacity of at least 4.96 Tbps.

MainOne cable is able to interconnect with SEACOM and other international cables from Seixal in Portugal, and extend to MainOne PoP at Telehouse North, London, via Tata Communications’ European and Transatlantic networks.

In September 2018, Orange announced to invest in the MainOne cable system, constructing two new branches and stations connecting the MainOne cable to Dakar in Senegal and Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire.

In December 2021, Equinix announced to acquire MainOne Cable Company for US$320million. The transaction was closed in April 2022.

Equiano cable system is the third private international cable owned by Google and the 14th subsea cable invested by Google. 

Equiano connects Sesimbra (Portugal) to Cape Town (South Africa), with branching units to Lagos (Nigeria), Lomé (Togo), Swakopmund (Namibia), Rupert's bay (St Helena), etc.  

Named for Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist who was enslaved as a boy, the Equiano cable is state-of-the-art infrastructure based on space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology, with 12 fiber pairs and design capacity of 144Tbps, approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve this region. The SDM technology was first deployed in Google's second private subsea cable, Dunant.

Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fiber-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching.

A contract to build the Equiano cable with Alcatel Submarine Networks was signed in Q4 2018, and the first phase of the project, connecting South Africa with Portugal.

The Equiano cable system has been ready for service since March 2023.

Simba is a multi-stage subsea cable project led by Facebook. Its goal is to connect the entire continent of Africa to the internet, increasing accessibility while also driving down bandwidth prices significantly, which could make it easier to sign up new users. And it could be a major disruption to the current service provider model. 

In May 2020, Facebook announced its partnership with leading African and global operators to build 2Africa submarine cable system. It means Simba cable system has been rebranded as 2Africa.

The South Atlantic Telecommunications cable no.3 (SAT-3) is a 13000km submarine cable connecting South Africa, West Africa, to Europe. The SAT-3 cable system has a toltal capacity of 120Gbps, ready for service in 2001.

The earlier SAT-2 had been brought into service in the early 1990s and SAT-1 was constructed in the 1960s.

The SAT-3 is also known as the West African Submarine Cable (WASC), commonly called SAT-3/WASC. The SAT-3/WASC interconnects with the SAFE cable system at the Melkbosstrand cable landing station in South Africa, forming a cable link commonly known as SAT-3/WASC/SAFE.

The SAT-3/WASC and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) are most important international subsea cables in West Coast of Africa. The WACS lands at the Yzerfontein CLS in Western Cape Town, the SAT-3/WASC lands at the Melkbosstrand CLS in Western Cape Town, South Africa, forming alternative gateways to South Africa.

The SAT-3/WASC consortium comprises 36 telecom operators. The largest three investors in SAT-3/WASC were (in order) TCI, a subsidiary of AT&T (U.S.A.); France Telecom (France); and VSNL (India, Singapore). The 11 African shareholders are (in alphabetical order): Angola Telecom, Camtel, Cote d'Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecom, Maroc Telecom, Nitel, OPT Benin, OPT Gabon, Sonatel, Telecom Namibia and Telkom SA Ltd. There are also Asian shareholders.

Although Telecom Namibia holds ownership in SAT-3/WASC, Namibia has no landing point.

The SAT3 / WASC lands at the following cable landing stations:

• Chipiona, Spain
• Altavista, Gran Canaria, Spain
• Sesimbra, Portugal
• Dakar, Senegal
• Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
• Accra, Ghana
• Cotonou, Benin
• Lagos, Nigeria
• Douala, Cameroon
• Libreville, Gabon
• Cacuaco, Angola
• Melkbosstrand, South Africa

The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable spans 17,000 km along the west coast of Africa, connecting 19 countries including France, Portugal, the Canary Islands (Spain), Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mali and Niger (ACE Phase I), and South Africa.

Seven of these African countries – The Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Sao Tomé & Principe and Sierra Leone – benefit for the first time from a direct connection to a submarine cable. Two landlocked countries, Mali and Niger, connect to the ACE cable system through terrestrial network extensions.

The ACE consortium comprises France TelecomOrange, together with its subsidiaries Côte d’Ivoire Telecom, Orange Cameroon, Orange Mali, Orange Niger and Sonatel, have combined forces with other major partners to form an international consortium.

The ACE cable system costs a total investment of around U$700 million, with around $250 million financed by Orange group and its subsidiaries.

The ACE cable system consists of two fiber pairs, with an intial design capacity of 5.12 Tbps using 40 Gbps DWDM technology when the Phase I was ready for service in December 2012, supplied by ASN.

On June 1st, 2021, the ACE cable system extension to South Africa was ready for service, increasing design capacity of the entire system to 20Tbps. 

The Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS) is a 1100km submarine cable connecting Kribi in Cameroon with Lagos in Nigeria.

The NCSCS cable system consists of two fiber pair, delivering 12.8 Tbps.

The NCSCS cable system forms part of Cameroon’s strategic plan for building a National Broadband Network. The NCSCS cable system is owned and operated by Cameroon Telecommunications Corporation (CAMTEL), the monopoly international and backbone network operator in Cameroon.

CAMTEL partners with MainOne of Nigeria to land the NCSCS cable at Lagos Cable Landing Station which also houses the MainOne Cable System. Through the MainOne Cable System, the NCSCS cable system can be extended to Europe and other coutries in West Africa.

The NCSCS cable system was supplied by Huawei Marine, completed in September 2015.

The Globacom-1 (Glo-1) submarine cable system is a 9800km submarine cable connecting Bude in UK to Lagos in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa. It has landing points in Nigeria, London, Lisbon in Portugal, Accra in Ghana, etc. 

The Glo-1 cable system consists of 2 fibre pairs, with an initial design capacity of 320 (32*STM-64), and upgraded to 2.5Tbps. 

The Glo-1 cable system is owned and operated by Globacom Limited of Nigeria, supplied by ASN with a total cost of about $250 million.

The Glo-1 cable landed in Alfa Beach, Lagos in Nigeria in September 2009, the whole project completed in July 2010. Globacom activated the Glo-1 cable system for service in October 2010.

The Ceiba-2 Submarine Cable Systemednesday is a 400km submarine cable connecting Malabo and Bata in Equatorial Guinea, with a branching unit to Kribi in Cameroon, with a design capacity of 8 Tbps, in operation since March 2017.

The Ceiba-2 is owned and operated by the Manager of Telecommunications Infrastructure of Equatorial Guinea (GITGE, El Gestor de Infraestructuras de Telecomunicaciones de Guinea Ecuatorial), supplied by Huawei Marine. 

The construction of Ceiba-2 started in October 2015 and was completed in March 2017, equipped with an initial 40 Gbps lambda system and is scalable to a 100 Gbps lambda system to meet future demand.

According to GITGE, Ceiba-2 cable system is an invaluable redundancy for the country. Equatorial Guinea is already connected to Ceiba-1, which connects Malabo to Bata, and ACE Cable.

The Ceiba-2 cable system allows the ACE submarine cable to be interconnected with Cameroon, since the Ceiba-2 and ACE submarine stations in Bata are located next to each other and are interconnected with direct fiber optics.

Additionally, GITGE owns capacity on the SAIL submarine cable system between Kribi (Cameroon) and Fortaleza (Brazil). Ceiba-2+SAIL delivers a new route to the United States passing through Latin America and Africa. 

The Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express (SHARE) Cable is a 720km submarine cable from the African continent to the offshore islands of Cape Verde, connecting Dakar in Senegal and Praia in Cape Verde.

The SHARE cable system has a design capacity of 16Tbit/s.

There are now ACE (Africa Coast to Europe), MainOne, SAT-3/WASC and Atlantis-2 landing in Dakar, Senagal, 

Besides the SHARE cable system, there are Atlantis-2, WACS (West Africa Cable System) Ellalink and Equiano submarine cables landing in Praia, Cape Verde.

Relying on Cape Verde's existing resources of international cables to Europe, South America and other regions, the delivery of the SHARE cable system will introduce new international bandwidth routes to the African continent, greatly improving the total international export bandwidth of Senegal and other regions of West Africa.

The SHARE cable system will promote the development of the ICT Hub position of Senegal in West Africa and accelerate the development of the digital economy and innovative economy in the region.

The SHARE cable system is supplied by Huawei Marine and completed in January 2022.