According to NEC, construction of the South East Asia Japan Cable is finally underway. It was first envisioned back in 2008 by Google to go along with its Unity cable system, but the plans have evolved over the years. The six fiber system as currently being built will have a design capacity of 15Tbps and will now span 8900km with landings in Japan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, the Phillipines, Brunei, and Singapore. That length may be further extended to 10,700km via additional routes to Thailand and Indonesia. Just for context, here is a map of the proposed project in 2008 alongside that of today:
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Never could figure out why Guam was on that map back then, and now we all know where Brunei is. The consortium today consists of Google, KDDI, China Telecom, China Mobile, Globe Telecom, Donghwa Telecom, BIG, Telin, Telemedia Pacific, and TOT. Several large participants initially involved dropped out at various points, including Reliance Globalcom, Pacnet, and Bharti Airtel. Notably those last two paired up for a ‘new’ Chennai-Los Angeles link just the other day that dedicates existing fiber from i2i and EAC rather than building something new. 15Tbps between Japan and Singapore seems like a heck of a lot, but it won’t in 5-10 years I’m sure.
Construction may be underway, but it’s going to take a while, as SJC is expected to be fully operational in the second half of 2013. Both NEC and TE Subcom will be doing the heavy lifting.
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Categories: Undersea cables
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The Guam leg in the 2008 plan may not have been that odd. I see that as a possible way of tying into cables to Canada, Hawaii, and CA/OR/WA. It might also serve as a redundant path / shortcut to the Phillipines.
Ted: My thoughts exactly.