Some of the biggest names in Northeast Asia’s digital infrastructure and connectivity ecosystem have joined forces to build the E2A (East Asia To North America) submarine cable which will link major digital hubs in Asia and North America, with landings in Maruyama (Chiba, Japan), Toucheng (Taiwan), Busan (South Korea) and Morro Bay (California, USA).
The contract was signed on March 21 in Seoul between Japan’s SoftBank, South Korea’s SK Broadband, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom, and Verizon Business Global LLC. The consortium selected Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build a state-of-the-art transpacific fiber optic network that spans approximately 12,500km and is designed to significantly enhance digital connectivity between Asia and North America.
In a press release, SoftBank revealed that the E2A cable will integrate the latest advancements in submarine network technology, featuring:
- 12 fiber pairs (FP) delivering capacity of more than 192Tbps
- Open Cable System architecture, enabling seamless scalability and multi-operator connectivity
- 18kV power feeding technology, optimizing efficiency across all subsea infrastructure
- Optimized latency to support next-generation computing applications and digital services
“As we enter an era where AI is being fully implemented, the importance of international submarine cables connecting not only Japan and the United States but also major parts of Asia as arteries of information is increasing,” said Teruyuki Oya, Vice President, Head of the Mobile & Network Division, Technology Unit, at SoftBank Corp. “SoftBank will advance the development of global, multifaceted, and stable platforms by building infrastructure for the AI era.”
Ha Min-yong, head of the AI Data Center Division at SK Broadband, noted that “the E2A submarine cable will enhance service stability and scalability tailored to the AI era,” as per a report in ChosunBiz.
This submarine cable is expected to be completed in the second half of 2028 and play a crucial role in handling the surging demand for international internet traffic.
SoftBank will provide its “SoftBank Maruyama Landing Station” located in Minamiboso-City, Chiba Prefecture as the Japan landing station for E2A. The SoftBank Maruyama Landing Station serves as a landing point for numerous submarine cables, including the trans-Pacific optical submarine cable “JUPITER,” which began operations in August 2020, and the “ADC,” which commenced operations in December 2024.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s SK Broadband is part of the wider SK Group that also has a data center business that is spearheaded by the group company SK Telecom. Readers would recall that just a few weeks ago, SK Telecom had unveiled ambitious plans surrounding the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) including building an AI Infra Super Highway. The company is also planning a data center that will house 60,000 Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) with a power consumption capacity of 100 MW. But the company aims to expand the facility’s capacity to 1-2 GW in future, making it one of the biggest data centers in South Korea. Investments into connectivity infrastructure fall in line with these ambitions.
