Asia-Pacific Cable Network

Asia-Pacific Cable Network
Name	Asia-Pacific Cable Network
Status	Operational
First lit	1997
Length km	20000
Design capacity tbps	1.12
Owners	Consortium of carriers and operators

Asia-Pacific Cable Network

The Asia-Pacific Cable Network is a submarine telecommunications cable system linking multiple countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Launched in the late 1990s, it interconnects major hubs in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, supporting international traffic for carriers, carriers' carriers, and internet service providers. The system underpins connectivity among cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, and Guam, and interfaces with regional networks and terrestrial backbones.

Overview

The network provides high-capacity fiber-optic transmission between nodes including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Guam, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bandar Seri Begawan, and Vladivostok, enabling peering among operators like NTT Communications, China Telecom, Telstra, Singtel, and PLDT. It interworks with systems such as SEA-ME-WE 3, FLAG Europe-Asia, SJC (Singapore-Japan Cable), TPE (Trans-Pacific Express), and APCN-2 to route traffic toward Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and other North American gateways. Landing stations are managed by national carriers, landing license authorities, and infrastructure providers including PCCW Global, NEC Corporation, Alcatel-Lucent, and SubCom. The system supports services for content providers like Google, Facebook, and Akamai Technologies via bilateral capacity and IRU agreements.

History and Development

Conceived amid 1990s expansion of international bandwidth driven by demand from markets such as Japan, South Korea, China, and Australia, the project followed milestones set by projects like Southern Cross Cable and FLAG. Construction contracts were awarded to manufacturers including Alcatel Submarine Networks and NEC Corporation with repeaters supplied by Fujitsu and TE SubCom. The consortium model mirrored arrangements used by SEA-ME-WE 3 and APCN-2, with members negotiating landing rights under regimes influenced by regulators such as Ofcom-style entities and national telecommunications ministries in Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Upgrades in the 2000s and 2010s introduced DWDM equipment from Ciena and Huawei Marine to boost capacity in response to traffic from platforms like YouTube and Amazon Web Services.

Route and Landing Points

Primary fiber trunks run along seabed corridors passing near continental shelves, seamounts, and maritime chokepoints adjacent to Taiwan Strait, Luzon Strait, South China Sea, Arafura Sea, and Tasman Sea. Major landing points include facilities in Chiba Prefecture (Narita area), Kita-Ku, Osaka, Kobe, Kobe Port (Kobe City), Hong Kong (Siu Sai Wan), Jurong Island, Batam, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Clark Freeport Zone, Perth, and Sydney (Narrabeen) where cable landing stations interconnect with PoPs operated by Equinix, Telstra Global and local carriers. Regional branching units connect island territories such as Guam (Agaña Heights), Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and Northern Mariana Islands to major trunk segments, and tie into terrestrial networks that reach data centers in Tokyo, Shenzhen, Seoul, and Melbourne.

Technical Specifications

The system originally used repeaters and single-mode fiber pairs with an initial design capacity around 2.5 Gbit/s per wavelength; later upgrades deployed dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) with 10 Gbit/s, 40 Gbit/s, and coherent 100 Gbit/s channels using modulation schemes standardized by bodies like ITU-T and equipment from vendors such as Ciena, Huawei, Infinera, and Alcatel-Lucent. Amplification is provided by erbium-doped fiber amplifiers housed in undersea repeaters rated for tens of thousands of hours; optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) and ROV surveys map fault locations with support from ships like those operated by Global Marine Systems and Ile de Sein (ship)-class cable layers. Power feed equipment at landing stations supplies up to several kiloamperes via copper conductors in the cable, and system monitoring uses NOC centers maintained by consortium members.

Ownership and Consortium

Ownership is shared among national carriers, wholesale operators, and private investors including NTT Communications, China Telecom Global, Singtel, Telstra, PLDT, and regional carriers from Brunei and Malaysia. The consortium governance follows legal arrangements similar to IRU contracts and landing-party agreements seen in projects like APCN-2 and SEA-ME-WE 3, with dispute resolution mechanisms referencing arbitration bodies such as International Chamber of Commerce panels and national courts in jurisdictions like Singapore and Hong Kong. Capacity is allocated through equity, lease agreements, and IRUs to content providers and carriers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and regional ISPs.

Capacity and Services

Post-upgrade lit capacity supports multiple terabits per second of aggregate throughput, carrying IP transit, private leased lines, and Ethernet services for customers like NTT Data, SoftBank, KDDI, and M1 Limited. Service-level agreements mirror practices from wholesale markets centered at exchanges like Japan Internet Exchange and HKIX, with provisioning for wavelength services, MPLS-VPN, and cloud on-ramps to platforms operated by Google Cloud and Akamai. Capacity trading occurs on secondary markets where infrastructure investors and carriers such as Digital Realty and Equinix acquire IRUs and colocation at landing facilities.

Impact and Controversies

The network influenced regional digital economies in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania by lowering latency for financial centers like Tokyo Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange and enabling growth of content platforms such as Netflix and TikTok. Controversies have included disputes over landing rights in territories like Philippines and regulatory scrutiny tied to national security concerns similar to debates involving Huawei and ZTE in other projects, arbitration cases referencing UNCITRAL procedures, and environmental impact assessments involving agencies in Australia and Japan regarding seabed disturbance and fisheries. Cable cuts attributed to trawlers, earthquakes near Taiwan, and typhoon damage have prompted joint repair missions coordinated by members and flagged in maritime notices issued by organizations like International Maritime Organization.

Category:Submarine communications cables in the Pacific Ocean