The East Micronesia Cable System (EMCS) is a 2,250km submarine cable system connecting four islands amongst the Federated States of Micronesia (Pohnpei and Kosrae), Kiribati (Tarawa) and Nauru.

The EMCS is the first submarine cable connection for the islands of Tarawa (Kiribati), Nauru and the state of Kosrae (FSM).

The East Micronesia Cable System:

• Comprises a main trunk cable connecting Tarawa to Pohnpei with branches to Nauru and Kosrae .

• Provides optical transmission through a Single Fibre Pair with Spectrum Sharing between the countries, and an initial provisioned channel capacity of 100Gbps per country. (The system will be capable of 10 Tbps.)

• Connects into the existing Chuuk-Pohnpei Cable System, eliminating the need for an additional landing site in Pohnpei and adding resilience to the Chuuk-Pohnpei Cable System.

• lands at the existing HANTRU-1 cable landing point located in Pohnpei, FSM, with onward connectivity to Guam and the rest of the world.

The East Micronesia Cable System (EMCS) is jointly owned and operated by FSM Telecommunications Cable Corporation (FSMTCC), based in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), BwebwerikiNet Limited (BNL) of the Republic of Kiribati, and Nauru Fibre Cable Corporation (NFCC) of the Republic of Nauru.

The East Micronesia Cable System (EMCS) is supplied by NEC.

The EMCS project costs approximately US$95 million (AU$135 million equivalent), 100% grant funded by the Governments of Australia, Japan and the United States.

The Governments of the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, and Nauru (the EMC Countries) have accepted funding support from the Governments of Australia, Japan and the United States (the Development Partners) to deliver the East Micronesia Cable project. The Development Partners will collaborate with the EMC Countries to ensure a fit-for-purpose submarine cable provides essential and improved telecommunications connectivity.

Australia, via the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP), is taking the lead role in funding and coordination arrangements. The AIFFP has contracted nem Australasia Pty Ltd as the Project Coordination Unit to support the EMC Countries facilitate management of the overall project. The Project Coordination Unit comprises a team of specialists covering technical, legal, administrative, and environmental/social requirements of the East Micronesia Cable project. The AIFFP has released the approvement for the EMCS project.

The EMCS project was originally led by the World Bank in associate with the Asian Development Bank. The Governments of FSM and Kiribati were granted fund from the World Bank(World Bank Project Number P130592), and the Nauru Government was granted fund from the ADB (Asian Development Bank Grant Number D004-FM). Chinese HMN Technologies (HMN Tech) was in a strong position to win a bid for the $72.6 million EMCS project, offered at more than 20% below rivals including Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and NEC. But the project reached a stalemate due to security concerns raised within the island nations over HMN Tech's bid. The project's planned connection to a sensitive cable leading to Guam, a U.S. territory with substantial military assets, heightened those security concerns. During the bidding process in 2020, the Government of the United States detailed its concerns in a diplomatic note sent to FSM, which has military defence arrangements with the United States under a decades-old agreement. The note said Chinese firms posed a security threat. So, the World Bank-led project declined to award a contract to HMN Tech to lay sensitive undersea communications cables after Pacific island governments heeded U.S. warnings that participation of a Chinese company posed a security threat. Finally, the World Bank-led project sank after U.S. warns against Chinese bid. 

In December 2021, the Governments of Australia, Japan, the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Kiribati, and the Republic of Nauru reached a six-country joint statement to improve internet connectivity in the three Pacific nations by providing funding to build the EMCS project, which builds on the strong foundations of trilateral collaboration between Australia, Japan, and the United States in the Indo-Pacific. Later in July 2022, a six-country Memorandum of Understanding was signing for the EMCS project. 

In June 2023, Australia, Japan and the United States announced final agreement to fund the $95 million EMCS undersea cable project, supplied by Japanese NEC.

In an announcement in September 2023, the United States announced to provide an additional $2.5 million to continue U.S. support for the East Micronesia Cable in partnership with Australia and Japan, on top of its prior $20 million commitment.