Meta announced its investment in a new submarine cable system, "Candle," connecting Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, creating the largest submarine cable system in the Asia-Pacific region. This initiative aims to strengthen regional network resilience, improve cross-border data transmission efficiency, and support the development of high-bandwidth applications such as AI.
According to the plan announced by Meta, "Candle" will be approximately 8000 kilometers long and is expected to be completed in 2028. It will use the latest 24-pair optical fiber technology and have a total transmission capacity of up to 570 terabits per second (Tbps), which can cover more than 5.8 million Internet users.
Meta said that this infrastructure will not only bring high-speed connection experience to the Asia-Pacific region, but is also a key part of the company's promotion of AI and future digital applications.
The Apricot submarine cable is officially in operation, further upgrading the Taiwan-Japan communication network.
In addition to "Candle", Meta also announced that the "Apricot" submarine cable, jointly built by it and its partners, has been officially put into use. It currently connects Taiwan, Japan and Guam, and will be extended to the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore in the future, with a total length of 12000 kilometers.
When the system is fully completed, Apricot will add an additional 290 megabits per second of transmission capacity to the existing Bifrost and Echo cables, further expanding cross-border data flow efficiency.
Bifrost is complete, and Echo is actively expanding.
Meta also shared the latest progress on its other trans-Pacific cable projects, including the completion of the "Bifrost" submarine cable, which currently connects Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the United States, with an extension to Mexico expected in 2026. Bifrost utilizes a different routing than traditional trans-Pacific cables, adding over 260 terabits per second of redundant capacity to this busy digital corridor.
As for the "Echo" submarine cable, it currently provides the same 260-megabit high-speed transmission between Guam and California, and will be further extended to Asia in the future depending on demand.
Building a global digital backbone for the AI era
Meta pointed out that the Asia-Pacific region has more than 58% of the world's Internet users, so stable cross-border connections are crucial for AI computing and cloud services.
In addition to the four major submarine cables "Candle", "Apricot", "Bifrost" and "Echo", theThe intercontinental "Waterworth" submarine cable project, and it is expected to connect the five continents of the world within ten years; it is also expected to connect the Middle East, Africa and Europe into one through the "2Africa" plan.
Meta stated that it will continue to cooperate with Asia-Pacific telecom operators in the future to promote high-speed communications and digital infrastructure, providing a more stable, efficient and sustainable connection experience for AI, cloud and global communities.
