Meta’s New Candle Cable Targets APAC’s Growing Bandwidth Demand
With more than 58% of the world’s internet users living in the Asia-Pacific region, Meta is expanding its subsea cable portfolio to support the growing need for AI services, cloud products, and general connectivity. The company has announced a new cable system for the region, along with status updates on several existing projects that are now entering service.
These investments are part of a broader push to build resilient network infrastructure across APAC, with onward connections to the Americas, Europe, and beyond. Meta’s Project Waterworth, announced earlier this year, will land in five continents; the newly detailed systems complement that effort with additional regional capacity.
Candle: A New High-Capacity Route for East and Southeast Asia
The centerpiece of the announcement is Candle, a subsea cable slated for service in 2028. It will span 8,000 kilometers and land in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, reaching over 580 million people with 570 terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity.
According to Meta, Candle will be the largest-capacity cable system in APAC once operational. It will use 24 fiber-pair cable technology, a recently developed approach that yields bandwidth comparable to Anjana, currently Meta’s highest-capacity transatlantic cable. The system is being developed in partnership with regional telecommunications carriers.
Bifrost Goes Live, Echo and Apricot Expand in the Pacific
Meta has also provided updates on three cable systems that were announced in 2021 as part of an effort to increase transpacific capacity by 70%.
The Bifrost cable is now operational, connecting Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the United States. Mexico is expected to be added to the route in 2026. Bifrost follows a different path than previous transpacific cables and contributes over 260 Tbps of additional redundancy to that busy corridor.
Echo is also live, delivering 260 Tbps of capacity between Guam and California. The system includes options for extending connectivity onward into Asia at a later stage.
Apricot, a 12,000-kilometer system, is now available between Japan, Taiwan, and Guam. Future extensions will reach the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore. Once completed, Apricot will provide 290 Tbps of capacity and act as a complement to the Bifrost and Echo systems.
Together, the four systems—Candle, Echo, Bifrost, and Apricot—will supply intra-Asia links as well as transpacific connections to the Americas. Meta’s other projects, such as 2Africa and Project Waterworth, extend connectivity to India, the Middle East, Europe, and globally, supporting the delivery of its services and AI initiatives across the region.
