Important news in the subsea cable sector, as Australian operator Telstra has a new land-and-sea network-swap deal with US hyperscaler Google to pump AI workloads in and out of Australia, along the former’s fiber backbone and the latter’s pipes into the Asia Pacific region. There are a few things to consider here, about the deal structure, infrastructure strategy, and broader macro shift in global subsea routing. In the end, it shows the Pacific subsea system as the new AI expansion grid, supplementing the original Atlantic enterprise backbone. It also exists as a kind of hybrid interface deal between a tier-one hyperscaler, commanding global subsea infrastructure, and a tier-two telco, orchestrating some regional terrestrial routing assets; it works strategically for both parties.

As well, there is related news, also interesting: from private subsea cable operator FLAG, about a second route between South and Southeast Asia, going between Chennai on India’s east coast and a new landing station in Singapore. FLAG opened a west-coast line to Singapore last year, going via Mumbai; the new Chennai link brings capacity and diversity, and is offered for end-to-end routing via its ECHO system between Singapore and the US – easing reliance on west-bound routes via the Middle East and Europe. Meanwhile, there is news as well that the National Institute of IT and Communication Technology (NICT) in Japan achieved a record 450 Tbps on a single standard fiber pair, actually between two sites in London – which shows future capacity will come from the tech, too.

But we should go through it all more carefully…

James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News

RCR Top Stories

Subsea AI grid: A reciprocal infra deal between Telstra and Google, a new India–Singapore route from FLAG, a record-breaking fiber demo from Japan’s NICT all point to the same thing – that the subsea market is entering a new phase.

Broadband snapshot: The latest from Opensignal – cable is gaining ground on fiber upload speeds, fixed wireless keeps beating expectations, and broadband providers are racing to get bigger before their rivals do.

Politics, not tech: Defense connectivity in 6G depends on trust, sovereignty, procurement, and cooperation – and not just engineering. So said a US defense R&D official and a Danish tech ambassador at Defense Comms Forum.

Cloud infra boom: The cloud infrastructure market surpassed a half-trillion-dollar annual run rate in Q1 2026 as AI spending surged, though Synergy Research Group expects percentage growth rates to gradually moderate over time.

Runtime security: Runtime security is an imperative for telcos, writes Nokia. To detect threats earlier without hurting performance, security must deliver continuous visibility, operate predictably under load, and align with regulatory requirements.

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Beyond the Headlines

Fiber for AI demand: BUZZ HPC says dedicated fiber connectivity is becoming a critical component of sovereign AI infrastructure as it upgrades its Grand Falls campus in Canada with new high-capacity optical networking services.

Thai AI infra boom: Thailand’s data center pipeline has surpassed 1 GW as hyperscaler investments accelerate, but power availability, grid upgrades and land constraints are emerging as critical challenges for future growth.

EU AI landlord: Softbank’s €75bn to build 5GW of AI capacity in France is seen as a breakthrough for EU sovereignty. But the money and most of the ecosystem is foreign, albeit not all American. Which raises (the same old) questions.

256 cores at 2nm: AMD has started volume production of its sixth-gen EPYC ‘Venice’ CPUs on TSMC’s 2nm node, targeting agentic AI with up to 256 cores and big bandwidth gains, alongside a more efficient ‘Verano’ line for cloud inference.

6G foundry models: 6G is shifting to AI-native “foundry” models where networks are designed and optimised with AI from the ground up, enabling adaptive infrastructure, distributed compute, and tighter integration – says Qualcomm.

What We’re Reading

Noble buys Helium: T-Mobile hosted MVNO Noble Mobile has acquired Helium Mobile in the US, plus the Helium Network. Noble Mobile pays subscribers to use their phones less. Helium Mobile rewards subscribers for hosting infra.

P5G at McMaster: TERAGO, Canada’s largest mmWave spectrum holder, has deployed a private 5G network from Ericsson in a live manufacturing and research environment at the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI).

Nvidia DC design: Siemens has worked with Nvidia and Fluence on an Vera Rubin reference design to translates the US firm’s AI factory vision into a “deployable, industrialized electrical, power and controls architecture”.

Wi-Fi 7 in Oakland: RUCKUS and Fortis Solutions have deployed a full Wi-Fi 7 network at Oakland Arena, completed in thirteen days, and claiming a “future‑ready” experience for one of California’s premier concert venues.

5G grid balancing: Elisa Estonia has deployed Elisa Industriq’s AI‑powered Gridle battery optimization across its mobile network to harden resilience, while also enabling its base station batteries to balance the Estonian electricity system.

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