Construction has begun on a new subsea cable connecting Asia and the US.
The 12,500km E2A subsea cable will land in Toucheng, Taiwan; Busan, South Korea; Maruyama, Japan; and Morro Bay, California.
Built by Alcatel Submarine Networks, the cable will have a capacity of more than 192Tbps across 12 fiber pairs, featuring 18kV power technology.
It is set to go live in H2 2028.
The E2A consortium behind the project comprises SoftBank, SK Broadband, Chunghwa Telecom, and Verizon.
SoftBank has said it will provide its Maruyama landing station, located in Minamiboso-Chiba Prefecture, for the Japanese landing.
“We’re very pleased to have initiated the project for a new submarine cable connecting East Asia and the United States. As we enter an era where AI is being fully implemented, the importance of international submarine cables connecting not only Japan and the US but also major parts of Asia, as arteries of information is increasing. SoftBank will advance the development of global, multifaceted, and stable platforms by building infrastructure for the AI era,” said Teruyuki Oya, vice president and head of the mobile & network division, technology unit, Softbank.
Google announced plans last year to invest $1 billion into creating two subsea fiber cable routes between the US and Japan: Proa and Taihei.
Other cables connecting the West Coast of the US to Japan include PC-1, TGN-Pacific, TPE, Unity, Faster, NCP, and Jupiter.
