If Pacific Light Cable Network is not approved, it will endanger more US-Hong Kong submarine communication cables

#Newspaper

(22 Jun) As Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) is under the threat of being block by the United States, it may impact many submarine communication cables that are under construction across the Pacific, including HKA invested by Facebook and BtoBE invested by Amazon. Most of them involve participation of Chinese state-owned telecommunications companies, for example, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecommunications Corporation.

As the number of Internet users increased in the recent year, so as the burden of fiber optic cables that connect countries. In the past, only telecommunications companies invested in the construction of submarine optical cables to connect cross-regional networks. Due to the demand for bandwidth increases, large Internet companies are now also participating in investing on the submarine cables. PLCN marks the beginning of this model, and currently there are several submarine optical cables that are under construction under this model.

HKA (Hong Kong-America) announced the construction plan in February 2018, which was jointly invested by Facebook, China Telecom, China Unicom, Tata, Telstra and RTI Cable. This system starts from Manchester and Hermosa Beach, California, and connects directly to Hong Kong's Chung Hom Kok with a separate branch going into Toucheng, Taiwan . There are 6 pairs of optical fiber systems in the optical cable, with a total capacity of 76.8Tbps. It was originally expected to be available in 2020. However, China Unicom, who was responsible for the landing project in Hong Kong, did not publish the information in the Gazette until March this year, which created a delay and is now expected to be completed in the third quarter. As can be seen from the website of RTI Cables, HKA's latest estimate is to put into service in the fourth quarter of 2021.

BtoBE (Bay to Bay Express) was jointly invested by China Mobile, Facebook and AWS, and the project was announced in July 2018. The optical cable departs from Grover Beach, California, across the Pacific Ocean, and enters the South China Sea. It branches to Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Changi, Singapore; and Cherating, Malaysia. The total capacity is 108Tbps and it is expected to be available in 2021.

In addition to participating in HKA, RTI Cables also invested in the construction of another HK-G, connecting Piti from Guam in the United States to Tseung Kwan O in Hong Kong, with a designed capacity of 48 Tbps. The company also used Guam as a hub to build SxS to Los Angeles, USA, JGA-S to Sydney, Australia, and JGA-N to Tokyo, Japan.

The US Department of Justice, based on national security concerns regarding the participation of Chinese telecommunications providers, and the US direct connection to "Hong Kong, China", recommended that the FCC reject the PLCN application for operation. HKA and BtoBE are heavily invested by Chinese state-owned telecom companies, and this might lead to stronger resistance in approving the operation application. Although HK-G is invested by RTI Cables, an independent telecommunications company, and it also does not connect to the United States mainland, because it involves Hong Kong, FCC decision on approving on operation applicable is still unclear.

Source: PCM

https://www.pcmarket.com.hk/plcn若不獲批-危及更多美國至香港海纜/?fbclid=IwAR0TEzG6_2sBD0LPq2B15H8THRKXE_jh0ca4Rd1_oEtO6syZyvkZbdeBNPc

Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#secuitythreat #China #US #hongkong #PLCN #HKA #BtoBE