SJC (2)

According to Evans (EGS):

"The supply contract for South East Asia Japan (SJC) seems at the time of writing about to be signed. This pan Asian system has landing sites in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan; the system has additional optional segments to Vietnam and Guam. Installation is expected in 2010."

Source/Courtesy : Graham Evans/WFN

Capacitymedia (10/2008):

Google is looking to extend its undersea cable reach across Asia. The company is part of a consortium of operators planning to build a cable from Chikura, Japan to Tuas, Singapore with branches reaching Guam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. The consortium includes Bharti Airtel, Singtel, KDDI, Global Transit as well as Globe Telecom in the Philippines and TOT in Thailand.

“If you look at Google’s current cable, the Unity cable between the US and Japan you see that they have more interest than just connecting to Japan,” says Alan Mauldin, research director at Telegeography. “They will be able to connect with a lot of different locations in Asia. Some of these places are clearly to serve local markets but some of these are strategic locations such as Singapore, which helps the company get to India. If you go to Guam there are options for getting to Australia with the new pipe coming along there.”

The Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) is being planned by a similar consortium to that of the Unity Cable. Only Pacnet, which will have two fibre pairs on the Unity cable, will not be involved. “By doing this Google seems to meet its needs in terms of trying to get capacity at cost to serve its internal demand,” says Mauldin. “The cable actually looks nearly identical to the cable Tata is putting into service in the fourth quarter of this year. It follows a really similar path. It is not a ring-based system. It is a direct path between Japan and Singapore.”

If Alan's statement is true, then it is indeed quite reasonable that SJC will land in Tuas. Though, of course there are many other possibilities.

SJC Plan

Southeast-asia Japan Cable (SJC) is currently in the planning stage. This second Google-led cable initiative will extend Unity cable to Southeast Asia.

• RFS: earliest 2011 (Alan Mauldin's estimate)
• Corsortium members: Google, Bharti, SingTel, KDDI, Global Transit (all these companies are also member of Unity Japan-US)
• Consortium members (SJC only): Globe Telecom Philippines, TOT Thailand
• Contractors/suppliers: ??? the same as Unity ???
• Current status: planning stage; preparation of supply contract
• CAPEX ???
  

Southeast-asia Japan Cable (SJC) Plan (Source/Courtesy Telegeography)

Several things are for me questionable:

• Why shall the cable land in Tuas ? This is usually used for cable coming from the west; as a preparation to extend to South Asia or just a Telegeography's typo ?
• Global Transit's HQ is in KL, but there is no Malaysian leg of the cable??
  

Additionally, Commsday said:

• "Google is reportedly looking for partners for the construction of a new subsea cable connecting to Africa"; (link eastwards to Asia or northwards to Europe is unclear but CAPEX estimate is revealed i.e. approx. USD 80 mn)
• "The SCJ will link to PPC-1"; "The cable would allow Pipe to provide direct capacity from Australia to Japan and the US at a substantial discount given likely pricing trends and presents new competition for AJC and a number of other emerging east asian systems planned by the likes of Pacnet, Reliance and Tata"
  

Google's Africa cable would be a hint; I guess extending the cable from SG to Africa would be a bit cheaper while covering traffic to/from South Asia and Middle East. Second, it was for me a surprise that Pipe which closely cooperates with Tata will also indirectly involve in this Google project :-). You might want to see this Tata's cable.