How Asia’s subsea cables are changing connectivity logic
Asia’s subsea cable landscape is entering a period of profound change.
The region, long expected to fuel the next era of global digital growth, now finds itself contending with geopolitical tension, constrained landing capacity, a surge of hyperscaler ambitions, and deep uncertainty over the true impact of AI on bandwidth demand.
PCCW Global, Sparkle, Telecom Egypt & ZOI join forces to build subsea cable
Earlier in the year, PCCW Global, Sparkle, Telecom Egypt, and Zain Omantel International (ZOI) unveiled a partnership to build the Asia-Africa-Europe-2 (AAE-2) subsea cable system.
With the cable linking Hong Kong and Singapore to Italy via a secure, high-capacity network, the proposed system said it would cover critical terrestrial corridors across Thailand, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt, forming a resilient, high-performance data highway between the three continents.
Capacity Europe 2025: Can operators guarantee subsea resiliency amid AI and geopolitical challenges?
With 99% of intercontinental internet traffic and an estimated 97–98% of all international data carried via submarine cables, safeguarding subsea networks has never been more critical.
This urgency was a key theme at Capacity Europe in October 2025, where a panel of leading industry figures, chaired by Kevin Sheehan, CTO of the Americas and VP sales engineering at Ciena, discussed the challenges and solutions facing the sector.
Subsea cable linking USA and Ireland unveiled by AWS
AWS announced Fastnet in November, a dedicated high-capacity transatlantic cable that connects the US and Republic of Ireland.
The new cable will feature advanced optical switching technology, enabling seamless rerouting of data as future network needs evolve. Additionally, the company revealed, its two unique landing points provide critical redundancy, ensuring that the technology giant’s services continue to run smoothly even if other cables experience issues.
Google unveils ‘Sol’: First-ever subsea cable linking Florida to Europe
Google unveiled a new transatlantic subsea cable system named Sol, which will connect the United States with Bermuda, the Azores, Spain, and Portugal.
The announcement marked another major step in the tech giant’s mission to enhance global digital infrastructure, boost connectivity, and support the rapidly growing demands of AI and cloud services.
World’s longest subsea cable completed: Meta’s 2Africa set to supercharge connectivity across Africa
Meta and its consortium partners completed the core 2Africa subsea cable system, marking a major milestone in what is set to become the world’s longest open-access fibre optic network.
The project, which connects East and West Africa with Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, is designed to increase international capacity and improve network resilience across one of the fastest-growing bandwidth markets in the world.
FCC fast-tracks subsea cable approvals in bid to open market beyond hyperscalers
The US has pushed through its biggest overhaul of subsea cable rules in more than 20 years, slashing approval times and promising to cut red tape for new systems.
Under new measures agreed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), licence applications will be processed faster, compliance burdens reduced, and cost overheads lowered.
The changes came at a time when AI, cloud and data centre growth are fuelling unprecedented demand for bandwidth.
Ship likely cut subsea cables in the Red Sea, disrupting connectivity across three continents
In our biggest subsea story of 2025, Saf Malik reported that a ship likely cut cables in the Red Sea that disrupted internet access in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The incident underlined the vulnerability of global connectivity just over a year after another incident severed the same corridor.
