JGA North is Ready for Service

Singapore, 6 July 2020 – RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. (RTI) and NEC Corporation (NEC) jointly announced the successful completion of the Japan-Guam-Australia North Cable System (JGA North). JGA North is approximately 2,700 kilometers in length and lands in Minami-Boso, Japan and Piti, Guam. The cable has an initial design capacity of 24 terabits per second (24 Tbps) minimum, increasing to 30 Tbps in the coming year. 
JGA North cable spools onboard the installation vessel
and into a cable tank with capacity up to 3,500 km

 
JGA North seamlessly interconnects with Japan-Guam-Australia South (JGA South) in Guam, thereby extending the cable’s reach to both Sydney’s Central Business District and Australia’s Sunshine Coast. The last cable between Japan and Australia was constructed more than 20 years ago. The JGA cables (North and South) are already making tremendous improvements by establishing the fastest path between Tokyo and Sydney, delivering essential network diversity between Japan, Australia and the United States, and extending onward connectivity options over RTI’s Guam-connected hub-and-spoke network. 

Russ Matulich, RTI’s CEO, said, “JGA North’s on-time and under budget completion is an extraordinary milestone to achieve in the current environment. At sea and on the ground, subsea cable experts were relentless in solving incredibly complex issues ranging from workplace safety to supply chain management. RTI is extremely grateful for the selfless contributions from so many of our friends around the globe – and especially for the engineers, marine crew, GTA’s local personnel, and NEC’s installation team. Working together under pressure, they delivered JGA North’s exceptional outcome, making it very clear: money doesn’t get cables built, relationships do!”

JGA North, JGA South, and SEA-US intersect in Guam. Combined, their design capacity exceeds 90 Tbps. All three cables have been constructed on-time and under budget. 

Atsushi Kuwahara, General Manager of NEC’s Submarine Network Division said, “NEC is proud that we successfully completed this project in such a rapid timeframe. The construction of every submarine cable system presents a unique set of challenges, and the building of JGA was not immune to this. But by closely cooperating with RTI, we overcame tremendous obstacles and successfully completed JGA North on-time. Fast and reliable connectivity to the Internet is essential for everyone, and NEC will continue to contribute to the expansion of connectivity for society.”

JGA North, a private cable with RTI as the sole investor, is the northern segment of the Japan-Guam-Australia Cable System between Minami-Boso, Japan and Piti, Guam. JGA North was manufactured and built by NEC, and was funded by proceeds from Japanese financial institutions, including the Fund Corporation for the Overseas Development of Japan’s ICT and Postal Services Inc. (Japan ICT Fund) and NEC Capital Solutions.  JGA South, the southern segment between Piti, Guam, the Sunshine Coast and Sydney, Australia, was manufactured and co-built by NEC and Alcatel Submarine Network (ASN) and has been in service since March 2020. Both JGA North and JGA South will interconnect at GNC – RTI’s neutral cable landing station and data center on Guam.

RTI’s owned assets and status are summarized as follows: 

Subsea Cables:
•    SEA-US (30 Tbps): Operational since 3Q 2017
•    JGA South (36 Tbps): Operational since 1Q 2020
•    JGA North (24 Tbps): Ready for Service!
•    HK-G (48 Tbps): Under construction / completion targeted 2H 2021
•    HKA (77 Tbps): Under construction / completion targeted 2H 2021
•    SxS (96 Tbps): Contract in Force targeted for 1H 2021
•    Singapore-Guam (n/a): Contract in Force targeted for 1H 2021

Joint Carrier-Neutral Cable Landing Stations & Data Centres:
•    HMB in Hermosa Beach, California (1.2MW): 
     o    CLS: 4 subsea cables with design capacity of 220 Tbps are landed or under construction
     o    DC: Collocation is under construction
•    GNC in Guam (2MW): 
     o    CLS: 3 subsea cables with design capacity of 90 Tbps are seamlessly interconnected
     o    DC: Collocation and interconnection services will be announced shortly

RTI’s cable ownership exceeds 100 Tbps, totals 38,110 kilometers, and connects 7 cities, 4 countries, 3 continents and 2 hemispheres over a single seamless network.
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About RTI
RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. is a leading independent undersea cable owner providing large-scale network solutions across a wide variety of industries including cloud companies, network operators, regional carriers, global enterprises, content providers and institutions for higher learning. RTI is headquartered in the city-state of Singapore. For more information, visit www.rticable.com.
RTI Media Contact:
 
Shota Masuda
Chief Strategy Officer
+81.90.2644.9219
smasuda@rticable.com