TPE or Trans-Pacific Express is a submarine telecommunications cable linking China,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, Japan, and the United States. The line is a US$500 million joint venture between 6 telecommunication companies

China Telecom China Telecom Corporation Limited (CT) is a Chinese telecommunications company. It is one of the publicly traded red chip companies of the state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation. The company's H shares have been traded on the Sto ...

China Netcom China Netcom, full name China Netcom Group Corporation (Hong Kong) Limited (former stock codes: HKEX:0906, NYSE:CN), abbreviated CNC, was a telecommunication service provider in People's Republic of China. It was formed in August 1999 by the Chin ...

China Unicom China United Network Communications Group (China Unicom) is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator. Originally founded (on January 6 2009) as a wireless paging and GSM mobile operator, it currently provides a range of services inclu ...

Chunghwa Telecom Chunghwa Telecom (), officially Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., is the largest integrated Telecommunications company, telecommunications service provider in Taiwan, providing Public switched telephone network, PSTN, mobile phone, and broadband se ...

, Korea Telecom, and

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

(

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

and NTT joined in March 2008). Ownership of the cable is evenly split between the 6 participants. Construction of this 11,000 miles (approx. 17,700 km) line was completed in September 2008,Verizon, KT, 4 Others Complete Rollout Of Trans-Pacific Cable
and the Japan branch was completed in January 2010.
/ref> At the time of its construction, 5,547 gigabits per second of capacity was available across the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, but only 2,726 gigabits per second existed across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. Most links to China had to go through a hub in Japan, and access topped out at 155 Mbit/s.Verizon Business building $500 million terabit cable to China - Network World
The TPE is more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the U.S. and China, and thus its construction was a major enhancement to the cable systems between the two nations. It is the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the U.S. and China,Trans-Pacific Express Approved To Land In U.S. - MarketAvenue
/ref> and was also the first major undersea system to land on the U.S. West Coast in more than seven years.Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval - Engadget
/ref> Initially, the Trans-Pacific Express cable was configured to handle traffic at 1.28 terabits per second (Tbit/s), but the system has a design capacity of up to 5.12 Tbit/s. Customers can also book individual connections running at 10 Gbit/s.

Landing Points

The landing points of the cable are located in: # Chongming,

Shanghai Municipality Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

Shandong Province Shandong is a coastal province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural and religious center ...

# Maruyama, Chiba, Japan #

Geoje Geoje (; ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city located in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It is located near Busan. Hanwha Ocean in Okpo and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in Gohyeon are both located on Geoje Island. The cit ...

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World Heritage Site Haeinsa, a Buddhist temple tha ...

Tamsui Tamsui District () is a seaside district in New Taipei City, Taiwan adjacent to the Tamsui River and overlooking the Taiwan Strait. The name of the district means "fresh water" in Chinese. Although modest in size (population 189,271), Tamsui ...

New Taipei City New Taipei City is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality located in regions of Taiwan, northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 4,004,367 as of January 2023, making it the most populous city in Taiwan, a ...

( ROC) # Nedonna Beach,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States

References

External links

TPE page at the Atlantic-Cable.com History of Undersea Communications Website
{{Submarine communications cables in the Pacific Ocean Submarine communications cables in the Pacific Ocean Japan–United States relations South Korea–United States relations China–United States relations China–Japan relations China–South Korea relations Japan–South Korea relations