Submarine Networks
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English (UK) Global Submarine Cable Systems
Submarine Cable Networks, dedicated to being the encyclopedia on global submarine cable systems.
At Submarine Cable Networks, the Systems are categorized in accordance with their corresponding regional coverage.
South Pacific (Australia-US)
Subsea Cables in/across South Pacific
There are now the following subsea cable systems in or acroos South Pacific, connecting Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific Islands, and the United States.
Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN)
Southern Cross Next (under construction)
PPC-1 (PIPE Pacific Cable 1)
TGA (Tasman Global Access )
PPC-1
The PPC-1 (PIPE Pacific Cable 1) submarine cable system consists of two segments of digital fiber-optic cable: (1) the Australia-Guam Trunk, connecting Sydney, Australia with Piti, Guam; and (2) the PNG Spur, connecting Madang, Papua New Guinea with a branching unit located on the Australia-Guam Trunk. The Australia-Guam Trunk of the PPC-1 cable system consists of two optical fiber pairs, with a design capacity of 96 wavelengths (10 Gbps) on each fiber pair, for a total design capacity of 1.92 Tbps. The initial configuration of the Australia-Guam Trunk provides a total of 140 Gbps of capacity. The initial configuration of the PNG Spur provides a total of 20 Gbps of capacity, 10 Gbps on the Papua New Guinea-Guam route and 10 Gbps on the Papua New Guinea-Australia route.
The PPC-1 cable project was lunched on January 14, 2008. On September 22, 2009, Internode released a press release claiming successful transmission of IP packets across the PPC-1 cable, making it the first commercial entity to make use of the PPC-1 cable. The PPC-1 cable project was formally completed on October 8, 2009.
Pacific Fibre
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
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.
Manatua
The Manatua cable system is a 3700km, 2 fibre pair system connecting Samoa, Niue, Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands and Tahiti and Bora Bora in French Polynesia. Each fibre pair is capable of operating at up to 10 Tbps. 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 submarine cable system consists of
- 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, to be ready for service in May 2020.
KSCN
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.
Asia-Australia Submarine Cable Systems
Subsea Cables Connecting Asia and Australia
There are the following subsea cable systems connecting Asia and Australia:
JASURAUS (APCN)
ASC (Australia-Singapore Cable)
Trident (pending)
AJC (Australia-Japan Cable)
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.
JASURAUS
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.
ASSC-1
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.
PNG National
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
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.
Terrestrial Cables
The Eurasia Terrestrial Cable Network is an important part of the global telecom infrastructure, consists of various terrestrial cable systems such as TEA, TEA-2, TEA-3, ERA, ERMC, EKA, CR2, etc, with the efforts and cooperation from carriers in China, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and other Asian and European countries, the Eurasia Terrestrial Cable Network has been stable enough to offer bandwidth up to 10G or 10GE with SLA guaranteed.
TEA
The TEA (Transit Europe-Asia) is a terrestrial cable network between Europe and Asia via the territory of Russia, with its Russian segment running over Rostelecom's DWDM network. The Asian segment of the TEA terrestrial cable network may run over:
- the territory of China via cross border interconnections between Rostelecom and its Chinese partners (China Telecom and China Unicom; or
- the territory of Japan via the Russia-Japan Submarine Cable Network (RJCN) constructed by Rostelecom and KDDI; or
- terrestrial cable between Russia and Kazakhstan reaching Central Asia countries.
The TEA terrestrial cable network enables a short latency and stable solution for traffic transiting Europe and Asia.
The TEA terrestrial cable network is a meaningful alternative to the mainly US centric trans-Pacific cable systems in connecting internet networks between Europe and Asia.
TEA-2
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.
TEA-3
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).
TEA-4
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.
ERJ
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) .
ERA
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.
ERMC
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.
TMP
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
DREAM
The Diverse Route for European and Asian Markets (DREAM) is an 8,700km Eurasia terrestrial cable route conneting Germany, Austria, Sovakia, 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
Super TSR
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
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.
North-South America
Submarine cable systems connecting North America and South America
Monet
The MONET is a submarine cable system hooking up Boca Raton in Florida with Brazil’s Fortaleza and Santos, with six fiber pairs and a total design capacity of 64 Tbps.
The MONET consortium comprises of Google, Brazil’s Algar Telecom, Uruguay’s Antel, and Angola’s Angola Cables.
BRUSA
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.
FOA
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
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.
Curie
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 for future connectivity to 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.
The Curie cable system is supplied by TE SubCom. The Curie cable system was ready for service on November 15, 2019.
Globenet
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.
Kanawa
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.
Brazil-Eruope Submarine Cable Systems
Brazil-Eruope Submarine Cable Systems
North America
Submarine and terrestrial cable systems connecting countries or regions in North America.
Megacable
The Topolobambo – La Paz submarine cable system is a 250km unrepeatered submarine cable system with 24 fiber pairs. The system, which will have a capacity of 192Tb/s, is planned for delivery in Q2 2019.
The Topolobambo – La Paz submarine cable system is owned and operated by Megacable Holdings, S.A.B. de C.V., one of the largest Cable Telecommunications operator in Mexico. The cable system is supplied by Huawei Marine.
