Revenge of the PTTs: E2A Cable

This PTT-dominated consortium project is a 16 fibre pair cable connecting Asia's Pacific Rim to America. The Pacific is one of the regions where pricing is high enough that telecom carriers can get a respectable return on their investment. As a result telecom consortiums are still active unlike the Atlantic. The main trunk runs from Taiwan to the US with South Korean and Japanese branches. Total day one capacity is slightly over 192 Tbps. Chunghwa, SK Broadband, Softbank, and Verizon are consortium members. Unlike a traditional consortium where members receive lit capacity based on their share of total investment, each owner receives fibre pairs. Hence this is an open cable where only the wet plant and power feeding equipment is collectively owned and managed. Cable is scheduled to be RFS in 2H2028. The RFS date reflects a tight cable ship market.

Map of the Fibre Optic E2A Subsea Cable Route


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