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Stations

Cable Landing Station is one important component of a submarine cable system which comprises of Wet Plant and Dry Plant.

The Dry Plant of a submarine cable system is a segment between the beach manhole and the cable landing station, comprises of land cable, power feeding equipment (PFE) and submarine line terminal equipment(SLTE), etc. The Wet Plant of a submarine cable system lies between the beach manholes, consists of submarine cable, repeater/gain equalizer, branching unit. A typical schematic of a submarine cable system is shown below.

Typical Schematic for a Submarine Cable System

The PFE and the SLTE of a submarine cable system are installed at the cable landing station. In some cases, the PFE is installed at a cable landing station nearby the cable landing site, while the SLTE may be installed in another cable landing station much faraway. For example, the terminal station at Hillsboro for the SLTE of the TPE cable system is about 150 mile away from the cable landing site at Nedonna Beach.

Multiple submarine cable systems may share the same cable landing stations. The submarine cable system is connected with the terrestrial network at the cable landing station, through the so called backhaul system.

The cable landing site is usually carefully chosen to be in areas:

  • that have little marine traffic to minimise the risk of cables being damaged by ship anchors and trawler operations;
  • with gently sloping, sandy or silty sea-floors so that the cable can be buried to minimise the chance of damage;
  • without strong currents that would uncover buried cables and potentially move cables.

Multiple types of submarine cables may be used in a submarine cable system, subject to depth of the seabed where the cable lies.

Various Types of Submarine Cables

The double armored submarine cable is used at the shore-end, terminated at the beach manhole at the cable landing site, and is interconnected with much lighter land cable going onward to the cable landing station.

Structure of Land Cable

Structure of Single Armored Submarine Cable

In most of the jurisdictions worldwide, the cable landing license is required to land a submarine cable.

Cable Landing Stations in Africa

Cable Landing Stations in Asia

Cable Landing Stations in China

There are now 8 submarine cable landing stations in China.

China Telecom owns three cable landing stations, including

China Unicom owns four cable landing stations, including:

China Mobile owns one cable landing stations:

  • the Lingang Cable Landing Station for NCP;

Cabe Landing Stations in HK

For provision of cable-based external fixed service, an interested party is required to obtain a UCL (External) from OFTA. Apart from leasing capacity on existing submarine cables for provision of service, a holder of UCL (External) may also choose to land their own cables in Hong Kong, either by using an existing CLS or building a new CLS.

There are now 11 in-service submarine cable systems connecting Hong Kong, namely:

  • Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1，2017)，
  • Asia-America Gateway ("AAG"),
  • Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 ("APCN-2"),
  • Asia Pacific Gateway (APG,2016 ), 
  • Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE, 2013), 
  • EAC-C2C,
  • FLAG Europe Asia ("FEA"),
  • FLAG North Asia Loop ("FNAL") / REACH North Asia Loop ("RNAL"),
  • Sea-Me-We 3 ("SMW3"),
  • TGN-Intra Asia Cable System ("TGN-IA") and 
  • South-East Asia Japan Cable System (SJC, 2013) .

There are several new submarine cable systems under construction or planning, such as Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), Hong Kong - America(HKA),  Hong Kong - Guam (HKG), Southeast Asia–Japan 2 (SJC2), BtoBE, etc.

And there are eight submarine cable landing stations (CLS) in Hong Kong, including three at Tseung Kwan O, two at Tong Fuk, and each at Deep Water Bay, Chung Hom Kok and Cape D'Aguilar respectively.

Cable Landing Stations in Hong Kong

Cable Landing Stations in Hong Kong

Due to the geography of Hong Kong, the submarine cables are landed in Hong Kong from international waters via the southeast direction. This has restricted the choice of landing sites for submarine cables even though Hong Kong has a long coastline. Currently, there are three major areas for landing of submarine cables with cable landing stations at: (1) Tong Fuk in the southern part of Lantau Island; (2) Deep Water Bay, Cape D’Aguilar and Chung Hom Kok in the southern part of the Hong Kong Island; and (3) Tseung Kwan O in the eastern part of the New Territories.

As most of the existing submarine cables are landed at Tong Fuk and Deep Water Bay, there are advantages in having additional cables landed in new pieces of land elsewhere. It will offer the necessary physical diversity to land submarine cables at TKO (Tseung Kwan O) where accomodates many leading data centers in Hong Kong, such as HKEx, Global Switch, MEGA Plus, Hong Kong Financial Data Center, etc. 

Cable Landing Stations in Japan

Japan is the Hub for trans-Pacific and intra-Asia submarine networks, most of the trans-pacific submarine cable systems landing in Japan. There are more submarine cable landing stations in Japan than any other Asian countries, including Ajigaura, Chikura, Emi, Kita Ibaraki, Maruyama, Okinawa, Shin-Maruyama, Toyohashi and Wada cable landing stations. 

Cable Landing Stations in Korea

There are now four active cable landing stations in Korea, namely the Busan Cable Landing Station, the Keoje Cable Landing Station, the C2C Busan Cable Landing Station and the Taean Cable Landing Station, connecting APCN, APCN-2, APG, C2C, China-US CN, EAC, FNAL/RNAL, FLAG FEA, NCP, RJCN, R-J-K and TPE submarine cable systems.

Cable Landing Stations in Singapore

According to the Guidelines on Deployment of Submarine Cables into Singpaore issued by the Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in August 2010, all new submarine cable systems can only be deployed to three designated landing sites in Singapore, namely the Changi North landing site, the Tanah Merah landing site, and the Tuas landing site, and each landing site is available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Cable Landing Stations in Taiwan

There are now 9 submarine cables landing in Taiwan, including APCN, APCN-2, C2C, China-US CN, EAC, FLAG FEA, FNAL/FNAL, SMW3 and TPE, with cable landing stations at Tanshui, Pali, Toucheng and Fangshan.

Cable Landing Stations in the Philippines

The Philippines takes an important position in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry worldwide. Submarine networks serve as critical components to the BPO industry, providing reliable and diverse links between the Philippines and the rest of the world.

There are now seven submarine cable systems landing in the Philippines, including APCN, APCN-2, C2C, EAC, TGN-IA, AAG and Guam-Philippines, distributed in five cable landing stations in Batangas, Ballesteros, Capepisa, La Union and Nasugbu.

Cable Landing Stations in Malaysia

There are now 9 international submarine cables landing in Malaysia, including APCN, APCN-2, AAG, SMW3, SMW4, FEA, and several cables between Malaysia and Indonesia such as Batam-Dumai-Melaka (BDM) Cable System, Dumai Malaka Cable System (DMCS) and Batam-Rengit Cable System (BRCS).

Cable Landing Stations in Vietnam

There are now five submarine cable systems landing in Vietnam, including AAG (Asia-America Gateway), TGN-IA (TGN Intra-Asia Cable System) and TVH (Tailand-Vietnam-Hong Kong) landing at Vung Tau Cable Landing Station, C2C and SEA-ME-WE 3 cables landing at Danang Cable Landing Station.

Cable Landing Stations in India

Submarine Cables to/from India
Submarine Cables to/from India, by Suvesh Chattopadhyaya

 

Currently, there are 15 subsea cables (17 if Seacom and MENA are considered seperate cables) landing in 15 cable landing stations in 5 cities across India, in Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin and Trivandrum.

BSNL plans to construct new cable landing stations in Digha, Cochin, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. IOX will construct a new cable landing station at Puducherry. Reliance Jio is planning for new cables and landing station.

To have a full picture about submarine cables landing in India, please read following articles by an Indian expert Mr. Suvesh Chattopadhyaya:

According to Mr. Suvesh Chattopadhyaya's contribution, here is a complete list of submarine cables landing in India:

Complete List of Submarine Cables Landing in India
Complete List of Submarine Cables Landing in India, by Suvesh Chattopadhyaya

Cable Landing Stations in Thailand

Currently, international submarine cables land in Thailand via 3 submarine cable landing stations, namely the Sri Racha Cable Landing Station, the Petchaburi Cable Landing Station, and the Songkhla Cable Landing Station.

The undergoing intra-Asia submarine cable system, South-east Asia Japan Cable (SJC) is going to land at the Songkhla Cable Landing Station.

Cable Landing Stations in Myanmar

The SEA-ME-WE 3 (SMW3) is currently the only international submarine cable system reaching Myanmar, landing at the Pyapon Cable Landing Station in Myanmar.

Cable Landing Stations in Brunei

Cable Landing Stations in Brunei

Cable Landing Stations in Sri Lanka

There are two cable landing stations in Sri Lanka, the Mount Lavinia Cable Landing Stations for SMW3 and BLCS cable systems, and the Colombo Cable Landing Station for FALCON, SEA-ME-WE-4,SLT-Dhiraagu and SAFE cable systems.

Cable Landing Stations in Bangladesh

There are now two submarine cables landing in Bangladesh: SEA-ME-WE 4 (SMW4)  and SEA-ME-WE 5 (SMW5), at Cox's Bazaar cable landing station and Kuakata cable landing station respectively.

Both SMW4 and SMW5 are built and owned by Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company (BSCCL) .

Mango, the only private sector international internet gateway (IIG) operator of Bangladesh, is connected to the global internet using the SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine cable system.  Mango won its license through an open auction from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on February 25, 2008.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) issued draft licensing guidelines for two new submarine cable licences in early 2010. Each licensee should build a separate landing station within the general area of Khula-Patuakhali-Barisal-Chittagong, and should provide access, co-location and landing facilities to other submarine cable licensees, as and when required by the BTRC.

Besides the international submarine communication cable connecting Bangladesh, there are three terrestrial cables on India-Bangladesh boarders in Jessore, Sylhet-Comilla and Kurigram which may also bring Bangladesh into the global communication network.

 

Cable Landing Stations in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s position at the heart of the Middle East and is a hub in the submarine networks in Middle East region.

There are now 13 in-service submarine cable systems connecting Saudi Arabia, namely:

  • Saudi Arabia-Sudan-1 ( SAS-1,2003)
  • Saudi Arabia-Sudan-2 (SAS-2, 2011)
  • India-Middle East-Western Europe( IMEWE ,2009)
  • Europe India Gateway (EIG ,2011)
  • South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3( SE-ME-WE-3,1999)
  • South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 4 (SE-ME-WE-4, 2005 )
  • South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 5 (SE-ME-WE-5, 2016)
  • FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA , 1997)
  • FLAG Alcatel Lucent Optical Network ( FALCON, 2006)
  • Middle East North Africa (MENA , 2014)
  • Gulf Bridge International (GBI , 2012)
  • SEACOM/Tata TGN-Eurasia ( 2009)
  • Asia Africa Europe ( AAE-1, 2017)

There are no new submarine cable systems under construction or planning. However , there are expectations of new submarine cables announcements  in the year 2019 due high bandwidth demand & route diversity.

 

Cable Landing Stations in Saudi Arabia

 

Jeddah Landing Station, Al Khobar Landing Station and Yanbu Landing Station are connected to each other through completed redundant terrestrial network.

As most of the existing submarine cables are landed at Jeddah due to easy onward connectivity from Asia to Egypt & Europe.  There are advantages in having additional cables landed in new pieces of land elsewhere. As an example, SE-ME-WE-5 cable landed in Yanbu. Yanbu was selected as a SE-ME-WE-5 landing site for ease of connections to capital city Riyadh and Jeddah, as well as the fact that the seabed off its shore is very favorable for submerging the marine cable and could offer the necessary physical diversity.

  • JeddahCable Landing Station
  • Al Khobar Cable Landing Station
  • Yanbu Cable Landing Station

Contributed by Abdul Ravoof

Cable Landing Stations in North America

Cable Landing Stations in West Coast of the U.S.

Cable landing stations in the West Coast of the U.S. link most of the trans-pacific cables westward to Asia, Oceania, Hawaii, Guam, also connect with the submarine cables reaching Mexico and South America, as well as northward cables connecting Canada and the State of Alaska.

In the U.S., cables and cable landings are under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 [42 USC 4321-4327]). The U.S. Department of State also has a role. Cable Landing License is required to land a submarine cable in the U.S..

Cable Landing Stations in East Coast of the U.S.

Virginia Beach Cable Landing Station

Virginia Beach is now a hot site for submarine cable landing, hosting MAREA, BRUSA, SAEx1 and Dunant submarine cable systems.

Microsoft and Facebook partner with Telxius to land its 160Tbps MAREA cable system at the Virginia Beach Cable Landing Station (CLS) site at 1900 Corporate Landing Parkway in Virginia Beach.

Telxius also lands its private cable BRUSA at the Virginia Beach Cable Landing Station (CLS) site at 1900 Corporate Landing Parkway in Virginia Beach.

ACA International LLC, the landing party in the US for the South Atlantc Express (SAEx1) bought 10 acres in Corporate Landing Business Park to build a cable landing station and data center there. 

Google announced to land its second private and non-telecom Dunant submarine cable system at Virginia Beach.

Seaborn Networks plans to extend its Seabras-1 cable system with a branch to Virginia Beach.

Why Virginia Beach becomes hot for submarine cable landing?

The main reason is a more diverse route across the Atlantic and a direct interconnection between Europe and the Ashburn/Dulles datacenter hub. The city has established two diverse terrestrial landing routes: Camp Pendleton, this route is complete and was built for Telxius’ MAREA and BRUSA cables, the second, Sandbridge, which is on the drawing board ready for future needs.

The second is the favourable taxation policies. In December of 2017, Virginia Beach slashed its tax rate on computers and data center equipment to $0.40 per $100 of assessed value, currently the most competitive equipment tax breaks in the U.S. 

Although NYC is still hosting most of the Atlantic cable systems. Virginia is hotter now, as Virginia State is the home of one of the US’s large Internet hub, Ashburn, Virginia. More than 16 large datacenters and more than 60 smaller datacenters in the state.

Cable Landing Stations in Guam

Guam is a natural hub and communication gateway for trans-Pacific telecommunications. On this 212-square-mile island, Guam arguably has one of the most extensive telecom infrastructures in the Asia Pacific region and most areas throughout the United States. There are currently 10 separate submarine cables with landing points in Guam, connecting Asia and Australia with the United States, via three cable landing stations in Guam -- Tumon Bay, Piti and Tanguisson -- allowing local interconnections to alternate routes and cable diversity. The cables landing in Guam include CUCN, AAG, AJC and Guam-Philippine at Tanguisson station, TPC-5, AJC and Pacrim West at Tumon Bay station, TGN-Pacific, TGN-IA and PPC-1 at Piti station.

Cable Landing Stations in Hawaii

There are 7 major transpacific submarine cables landing in Hawaii, distributed at 5 cable landing stations in Hawaii island, including

  • two cable landing stations in Kawaihae  of the Big Island, i.e., the Spencer Beach Cable Landing Station for the Honotua cable system and the other Spencer Beach Cable Landing Station for the Southern Cross cable system, and
  • three cable landing stations in Hanolulu island, i.e., the Kahe Point Cable Landing Station for the Southern Cross, the Makaha Cable Landing Station for the Japan-US CN, and the Keawaula Cable Landing Station for  TPC-5, Telstra Endeavour, AAG and ASH (American Samoa Hawaii Cable)

 


Cable Landing Stations in Oceania

Cable Landing Stations in Australia

Because of the increasing importance of submarine cables, the Australian Government introduced legislation designed to protect the most critical submarine cables—the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Protection of Submarine Cables and Other Measures) Act 2005. The legislation allows the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to declare submarine cable protection zones in Australian waters over submarine cables of national significance. The ACMA has declared three submarine cable protection zones:

  • the Perth Submarine Cable Protection Zone stretching from City Beach, near Perth, to 51 nautical miles offshore (that is, to a water depth of 2000 metres) for the protection of the SEA-ME-WE 3 (SWM3).
  • the Northern Sydney Submarine Cable Protection Zone extending from Narrabeen beach to 40 nautical miles off shore covering northern branches of the Australia Japan Cable and Southern Cross cable, including the area between these two cables; and
  • the Southern Sydney Submarine Cable Protection Zone extending from Tamarama and Clovelly beaches and extending 30 nautical miles off shore covering the southern branches of the Australia Japan Cable and Southern Cross cables, including the area between these two cables.

Cable Landing Stations in America Samoa

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa).  The 2000 census showed a total population of 57,291 people. The total land area is 76.1 square miles (197.1 km2). American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States.

There is one international fiber optic cable between American Samoa, Samoa and Hawaii, the ASH/SAS Cable,  and connects America Samoa to the existing global telecommunications infrastructure networks.

The ASH/SAS Cable lands at the Pago Pago Cable Landing Station.

Cable Landing Stations in Samoa

Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa and German Samoa, is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in Polynesia, Savai'i. The capital city, Apia, and Faleolo International Airport are situated on the island of Upolu.

Samoa is connected into the global submarine networks with the Samoa American Samoa Cable (SAS Cable), and onward connectivity with the American Samoa Hawaii Cable (ASH Cable).

The ASH/SAS Cable lands at the Apia Cable Landing Station.

Cable Landing Stations in French Polynesia

French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity or constituent country of the French Republic. It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory (Papeete).

There are several cable landing stations in French Polynesia, including Vaitape, Uturoa, Huahine, Moorea and Papenoo cable landing stations.

The Papenoo Cable Landing Station in Tahiti island is the cable landing station for the Honotua submarine cable connecting French Polynesia and Hawaii, with onward connectivity to link French Polynesia with global submarine networks.

Cable Landing Stations in New Zealand

There are three cable landing stations in New Zealand, namely the Whenuapai Cable Landing Station, the Takapuna Cable Landing Station and the Auckland Cable Landing Station

It is currently only one submarine cable connecting New Zealand, i.e., the Southern Cross Cable Network which land at Whenuapai Cable Landing Station on the West Coast of New Zealand and the Takapuna Cable Landing Station on the East Coast of New Zealand.

The second international submarine cable system to link New Zealand is underway, i.e. the Pacific Fibre Cable System which is going to land in Auckland.

A Chinese consortium (China Telecom and Huawei Marine) announced in September 2011 to build a new trans-tasman submarine cable linking New Zealand and Australia, which will be the third submarine cable system landing in New Zealand.  

 

Cable Landing Stations in Papua New Guinea

It is currently one international submarine cable linking Papua New Guinea, i.e., the PPC-1 cable landing at the Madang Cable Landing Station in Papua New Guinea.

Cable Landing Stations in Fiji

The Southern Cross Cable Network is currently the only one international submarine cable landing in Fiji, and lands at the Suva Cable Landing Station in Viti Levu Island of Fiji.