New Taipei-Hong Kong subsea route opened to cut risk and meet AI demand
One of the world’s biggest network service providers has opened a new subsea route between Taipei and Hong Kong to strengthen the system against repeated underwater cable disruptions around the island. Britain-headquartered RETN said the new route would take its total to six serving Taiwan: four connecting Taipei and Hong Kong, and two linking Taipei and Tokyo. “Like many island economies,…
A leading global network provider has introduced a new subsea route linking Taipei and Hong Kong, aimed at enhancing resilience and mitigating risks associated with submarine cable disruptions. RETN, a Britain-based company, revealed that this addition brings its total subsea connections to Taiwan to six, already including four routes between Taipei and Hong Kong, and two from Taipei to Tokyo.
"Island economies face significant connectivity risks due to their reliance on subsea cables," the company stated on September 28, citing factors like cable concentration, aging infrastructure, natural hazards and fishing activities. The new path provides an additional international link, offering flexibility and reliability during cable impairments, thus ensuring service continuity during widespread disruptions.
Situated within an existing network of cables, this route passes through established terrains, with the Global Taiwan Institute noting Taiwan's connection to approximately two dozen undersea cables. Globally, around 150 to 200 subsea cable faults occur annually, with about 70 to 80 percent caused by human activities such as fishing and ship anchors.
Between 2018 and 2022, Taiwan's cables to the Matsu Islands were severed 27 times, with additional incidents reported in 2025. Despite these challenges, RETN emphasizes that the new route is designed to circumvent shared chokepoints and operate alongside terrestrial alternatives like TRANSKZ, a land-based corridor connecting Frankfurt to Hong Kong via Central Asia.
This strategic approach, RETN asserts, minimizes the risk of cascading congestion, latency spikes, and packet loss, which were evident during the 2024 Red Sea cable crisis, where disruptions disproportionately impacted Asia-Europe-Africa communications. RETN maintains oversight of these subsea cables from network operations centers in Latvia and Hong Kong, utilizing diverse equipment vendors and terrestrial corridors to ensure resilience against localized incidents affecting multiple routes.
The company also offers DDoS protection and network-level security services to maintain service availability even during cyber incidents, reinforcing its commitment to uninterrupted service delivery amidst evolving network vulnerabilities.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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