KT Submarine to install part of undersea cable for Google, Meta

South Korea’s undersea cable company KT Submarine Co. said on Thursday that it has signed a 9.2 billion won ($6.85 million) contract with Japan's NEC to join a project to build an undersea cable linking Singapore and Indonesia. The construction distance is 360 km. 

It is part of a project in which Meta and Google form a consortium to install undersea optical cables in the 20,000km section between the US and Singapore in preparation for Internet and cloud demand.

The demand for undersea optical cables is rapidly increasing, with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta expected to have more than 30 long-range undersea optical cables next year.

"We are seeing more business opportunities due to the aggressive investments of big tech companies," adding that they are considering securing additional cable-laying projects," said Lee Seung-yong, CEO of KT Submarine.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com