Echo subsea cable has recently landed in Singapore, creating a second transpacific route between the United States and Southeast Asia that bypasses completely the South China Sea.
According to Meta’s Director of Network Investments (APAC), Nico Roehrich, in a Linkedin post, the landing completes the core physical link of a historical route connecting the US mainland directly to Southeast Asia via Guam and Indonesia, and bypassing traditional transit corridors in the South China Sea.
Echo and its sister route, the Bifrost Cable System (which was Ready for Service in October 2025) form the foundational twin pillars of direct, ultra-low-latency trans-Pacific connectivity built to handle the explosion of cross-border AI and cloud workloads, according to reports.
Launched in early 2021, the Echo subsea cable system was expected to be ready for service in 2023, but is now only partially operational between Guam and California, delivering 260 Tbps of capacity. The main trunk spans 16,206km from Singapore to California, with 12 fiber pairs.
Built jointly by Meta and Google, and joined later by Trans Pacific Networks (TPN) in 2024, the Echo system is supplied by NEC.
“Echo is part of Meta’s sustained commitment to Asia-Pacific, alongside investments in Waterworth and Candle. Together, these cables reflect our confidence in Singapore and the region as critical nodes in the global network,” said Roehrich.