Partnership reached to build the Bay to Bay Express Cable System

Construction of the nearly 16,000km optical submarine cable is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2020.

BtoBE, featuring multiple pairs of optical fibre, enables high capacity transmission of data across the Pacific Ocean with round trip latency of less than 130ms. BtoBE will further enhance and contribute to the much needed expansion of communications networks between the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area and Singapore. This cable will be built with the most advanced optical submarine transmission equipment, thereby improving network redundancy, flexibility and ensuring highly reliable communications.

Toru Kawauchi, General Manager of the Submarine Network Division at NEC, stated: "NEC is honoured to be selected by the BtoBE consortium as the turn key system supplier for this world record breaking optical fibre submarine cable system that covers the longest distance without regeneration. The BtoBE, landing at three locations spanning across the Pacific Ocean, is designed so that once completed, it can carry at least 18tbs of capacity per fibre pair. The BtoBE will provide seamless connectivity and network diversity, while serving to complement other Asia-Pacific submarine cables, among others."