SK Broadband, LS Marine Solution team up to protect vital Asia cable link

SK Broadband, a division of the SK Group, has forged an agreement with marine engineering firm LS Marine Solution to bolster defenses around a crucial undersea cable connection between South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, known as the Southeast Asia-Japan Cable 2 (SJC2). The joint effort, confirmed on Wednesday, aims to enhance the reliability of this vital telecommunications infrastructure by expediting emergency repairs in vulnerable coastal regions.

To achieve this, SK Broadband and LS Marine Solution will jointly maintain response vessels and specialized equipment, as well as standardize technical data and repair protocols beforehand. Their ultimate objective is to streamline the entire recovery process, from deploying crews to extracting, reconnecting, and reburying damaged cables on the ocean floor, thereby minimizing downtime for service restoration.

The partnership will concentrate on shallow coastal waters off Busan, an area where large ships struggle to maneuver, necessitating highly specialized marine knowledge and swift response capabilities. SK Broadband will provide cable analysis data and monitoring capabilities as part of this collaboration.