ADC Consortium and NEC Mark Major Connectivity Milestone

The ADC Consortium recently celebrated the launch of the Asia Direct Cable (ADC), a subsea system of about 10,000 kilometers that boosts connectivity across East and Southeast Asia. NEC Corporation manufactured and installed the cable, using its long experience in submarine systems.​

The ADC links major hubs in China (Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong Province), Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Moreover, it uses multiple pairs of high‑capacity optical fibers. The system delivers over 160 terabits per second (Tbps) of total capacity. This bandwidth supports very heavy regional data traffic.

Supporting Asia’s Growing Digital and AI Demand

“This new cable marks an important milestone,” said Koji Ishii, MC Co‑Chairperson of the ADC Consortium. “It gives Asia a vital base for rising communications demand.” In addition, he credited close cooperation among partners in several countries. He said the system will strongly support the AI industry in Asia.

Billy Li, MC Co‑Chairperson of the consortium, said NEC earned the group’s full trust through successful delivery. Furthermore, he explained that the ADC offers very high capacity and critical route diversity for Asia’s main information hubs, helping carriers and service providers plan networks for long‑term, sustainable growth.​​​

NEC’s Long History in Submarine Cable Systems

Tomonori Uematsu, Senior Vice President at NEC Corporation, said the company felt honored to join the project. He added that the system will support bandwidth‑intensive services such as 5G and cloud computing. It will also help IoT and AI applications expand across the region.​

NEC has supplied submarine cable systems for more than 60 years and has built over 400,000 kilometers of cable worldwide, which is almost ten times the Earth’s circumference. In addition, its subsidiary OCC Corporation manufactures optical submarine cables that can withstand extreme pressure at depths beyond 8,000 meters.​​​

Regional Leaders Behind the Asia Direct Cable

The ADC Consortium brings together major operators including NT (Thailand), China Telecom, China Unicom, PLDT Inc., Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications, and Viettel. As a result, their joint investment highlights Asia’s rising role in the global digital economy and its need for resilient, high‑capacity network infrastructure.​​