Amazon and Facebook involved in US-Japan cable scheme

Amazon and Facebook are part of a powerful consortium building a new underwater cable that will connect America, Japan the Philippines and help deliver live and Ultra HD video.

The high-capacity Jupiter Cable system will follow a new transpacific route and is scheduled to be service-ready by early 2020 – timing that will likely see it go live ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

TE Connectivity-owned TE SubCom, a specialist in undersea communications technology, will deploy the submarine cable with the backing of six prominent content and telecoms service providers.

Philippines-based PLDT, Japan’s NTT Communications and Softbank, and PCCW Global are the four telco backers, while US-based Amazon and Facebook – both companies that have been making major commitments to video – complete the consortium.

“The demand for bandwidth in the Pacific region continues to grow at a remarkable rate, and is accompanied by the rise of capacity-dependent applications like live video, augmented and virtual reality, and 4K/8K video,” said SoftBank’s Koji Ishii, the co-chairperson of the Jupiter consortium. “Jupiter will provide the necessary diversity of connections and the highest capacity available to meet the needs of the evolving marketplace.”

The cable will be 14,000 km in length, has a design capacity of more than 60 Tbps, and will connect Daet in the Philippines to Maruyama and Shima in Japan and Los Angeles in the US.

Amazon last week pledged to increase its video investment in 2018, tailoring its content decisions based on what “resonates with Prime members”. Facebook meanwhile has made strides in recent times in both video and virtual reality.