Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday said it has activated a new submarine cable system — the Southeast Asia–Japan Cable 2 (SJC2) — jointly with its Asian partners to satisfy growing data transmission demand and enhance its network resilience.
SJC2 spans about 10,500km, and connects key locations across Southeast and Northeast Asia, including Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan, Chunghwa Telecom said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of Chunghwa Telecom Co
TRANSMISSION CAPACITY
Built with cutting-edge optical wavelength division multiplexing technology, SJC2 delivers up to 126 terabits per second of transmission capacity, the statement said.
The company has invested NT$1.36 billion (US$46.2 million) in the project, which is part of its network enhancement plan covering undersea, land and space networks, Chunghwa Telecom chairman Chien Chih-cheng (簡志誠) said in the statement.
“Chunghwa Telecom will continue to take concrete actions to enhance the digital resilience of Taiwan’s communications network, and empower artificial intelligence to drive industry transformation and change,” Chien said.
DUAL LANDING
Taiwan features a dual landing design with cable stations in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) and Pingtung County’s Fangshan Township (枋山), ensuring route diversity and enhancing Taiwan’s international connectivity, the company said.
The launch of SJC2 comes after the company on Wednesday inked an agreement with several overseas partners to jointly construct another submarine cable, the Asia United Gateway East Submarine Cable System.
The company is investing NT$2.4 billion in the project and expects it be to be completed in 2029, it said.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
RSS