The E2A consortium—comprising Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), SK Broadband (SKB), SoftBank, and Verizon Business (Verizon)—has announced that it will initiate the construction of a new submarine cable system, "E2A" (East Asia to North America), which will connect Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States. The agreement was signed on March 21 in Seoul, and the consortium has selected Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build a transpacific fiber-optic network spanning approximately 12,500 km, designed to significantly enhance digital connectivity between Asia and North America.
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E2A Submarine Cable
Crossing the Pacific Ocean, the E2A submarine cable system 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 consortium said the E2A submarine cable system will provide a backbone for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, data centers, and cloud services, ensuring high-speed connectivity across the Pacific as well as intra-Asia.
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Technology Powering the E2A Cable
The E2A cable will integrate the latest advancements in submarine network technology, featuring 12 fibre pairs (FP) with a capacity exceeding 192 Tbps, an Open Cable System architecture for scalability and multi-operator connectivity, 18kV power feeding technology to enhance efficiency and low latency to support next-generation computing and digital services.
Chunghwa Telecom said the E2A submarine cable, crossing the Pacific Ocean, will soon be able to interconnect with other upcoming Asian cables, such as the SJC2 and Apricot, in Taiwan, enabling diverse connectivity options.
As the Japan landing station for E2A, SoftBank will provide its "SoftBank Maruyama Landing Station" located in Minamiboso-City, Chiba Prefecture. 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.
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E2A Initiative
Teruyuki Oya, Vice President and Head of the Mobile and Network Division, Technology Unit, at SoftBank, said: "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. SoftBank will advance the development of global, multifaceted, and stable platforms by building infrastructure for the AI era."
Ha Min-Yong, director of SK Broadband's AI DC business division, said, "Through our participation in the E2A submarine cable, we hope to significantly increase the reliability and scalability of the network to meet the diverse demands of the AI era."
The E2A submarine cable system is scheduled to be ready for service (RFS) in the second half of 2028, significantly enhancing digital capacity and connectivity across the Pacific region.
