Submarine Cable Industry Report: Four Giants Hold Firm

C114 News, August 10 (Nanshan) — China's Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) recently released the "Global Submarine Optical Cable Industry Development Research Report (2026)."

The report states that global international submarine cable construction is currently maintaining strong growth. According to public data, by the end of 2025 there were 592 in-service submarine cables worldwide, with a total length exceeding 1.5 million km, including 120 newly delivered between 2021 and 2025. Over the next five years, global submarine cable investment will remain at a high level, with Asia the core contributor to investment growth. According to incomplete statistics, announced submarine cable system investment for 2026–2030 exceeds US$19 billion, with Asia ranking first worldwide at 22%.​

As global international submarine cable construction accelerates, international bandwidth continues to grow rapidly, with Asia, Europe and North America playing an increasingly prominent role as core engines; Asia is showing high levels in both absolute growth and growth rate. Statistics show that global international bandwidth usage reached 8,309 Tbps in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 30% from 2021 to 2025. Global international bandwidth usage is projected to reach 26,552 Tbps by 2030, with a CAGR of about 26% from 2026 to 2030.

In terms of bandwidth demand structure, over the past five years leading internet companies, cloud service providers and other content providers have actively participated in international submarine cable construction and bandwidth leasing to optimize their global business footprint and market reach, working to expand their global international bandwidth resources, accelerate structural adjustment of global bandwidth resource allocation, and speed the shift toward a "content-driven" bandwidth allocation paradigm. Statistics show that content providers' international bandwidth usage climbed to 6,262 Tbps in 2025, a growth rate of over 45%.

In terms of the supplier landscape, the submarine cable integration market remains dominated by four major players. Only a small number of companies currently have end-to-end delivery capabilities for cross-region submarine cables, so the market structure led by four firms — SubCom of the United States, ASN of France, NEC of Japan and China's HMN Tech — is relatively stable. To date, SubCom has delivered more than 200 submarine cable projects with a total length exceeding 1 million km; ASN has delivered more than 140 projects totaling about 850,000 km; NEC has deployed over 450,000 km of submarine cables worldwide; and HMN Tech, since its founding in 2008, has undertaken more than 180 submarine cable projects, with 130,000 km signed and delivered. Of the 120 submarine cable systems delivered worldwide between 2021 and 2025, HMN Tech, ASN, SubCom and NEC accounted for 23%, 23%, 11% and 9% of deliveries by number, and 14%, 41%, 21% and 20% by delivered length, respectively.

The report notes that submarine cable integrators dominate the core technical equipment. Core submarine cable equipment is the integrators' "moat"; key technologies for submarine line repeaters, submarine line branching units, open submarine cable access equipment, remote power feeding equipment and network management systems are currently held mainly by the four integrators NEC, SubCom, ASN and HMN Tech.

Submarine cable manufacturing is dominated by companies including France/Norway's Nexans, Italy's Prysmian, Japan's NEC, France's ASN, Hengtong Huahai, and Zhongtian Technology. Competing across technology, production capacity and project resources, these major players are driving faster technology iteration and expanded global capacity amid intense industry competition.

The report also notes that breakthroughs and global deployment of artificial intelligence are profoundly reshaping the scale, structure and distribution of international data traffic, pushing international bandwidth demand into a historic surge. On the one hand, the explosive growth of a new wave of generative AI, especially the large-scale deployment of AI large models, is generating massive AI traffic demand through human-machine and agent-to-agent interaction. AI services are emerging as a new business track driving regional traffic growth after internet platforms, extending submarine cables from information exchange and data transmission to AI interaction and creating incremental demand for international submarine cable construction. According to estimates, the ALC submarine cable has a capacity of 27 Tbps per fiber pair, equivalent to more than 80 billion tokens per second based on industry-equivalent traffic.

The report also notes that submarine cables typically have a design life of 25 years. On that basis, a large number of cables will reach the end of their design life within the next five to ten years, and global submarine cables will continue a steady cycle of replacement, keeping demand for new cables on a stable upward trend. Incomplete statistics indicate that 63 cables totaling about 270,000 km are expected to reach retirement age between 2026 and 2030, and 83 cables totaling about 200,000 km between 2031 and 2035. Regionally, intra-Asia and intra-Europe cables will together account for more than 50% of those reaching retirement age over the next decade, making them the main battleground for international submarine cable renewal.