RETN Opened New Taipei to Hong Kong Subsea Route
The expansion adds capacity to support AI workloads and creates redundancy against frequent regional cable disruptions.
Updated on Oct. 10, 2026 in Data Centers
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RETN has opened a new subsea route between Taipei and Hong Kong, bringing its total to six routes serving Taiwan. This expansion aims to bolster infrastructure resilience amid frequent subsea cable faults in the region.
Why it matters
The new route addresses recurring physical connectivity risks while providing the bandwidth required for data-intensive workloads like artificial intelligence. It helps safeguard network stability as Taiwan relies on approximately two dozen undersea cables for international data transit.
Globally, 150 to 200 subsea cable faults occur annually, with 70 to 80 percent triggered by accidental human activity. The new route adds to RETN's existing infrastructure, which includes the 15,000 km TRANSKZ terrestrial route connecting Frankfurt to Hong Kong.
The players
RETN
An international network operator providing fibre-optic connectivity and terrestrial routes like TRANSKZ to support data-intensive services.
The details
The route utilizes an existing set of subsea cables to establish a new connectivity path. RETN employs a strategy of using diverse equipment vendors and terrestrial corridors to prevent single-site failures across its network. Infrastructure monitoring for these assets is centralized at operations centres in Riga and Hong Kong.
Timeline
2018-2022: Cables to Matsu Islands were severed 27 times.
2024: Four Red Sea cables were severed.
2025: Further cable incidents were recorded near Matsu Islands.
September 28, 2026: RETN issued a statement regarding Taiwan connectivity risks.
October 2026: The new subsea route was opened.
The Tech Race
The expansion follows the industry trend of diversifying paths established after the 2024 Red Sea cable severances. It signals a move to improve network uptime in high-risk zones, contrasting with older, less redundant configurations.
This route provides improved reliability for data-intensive tasks such as AI training and cloud services requiring low latency between Taipei and Hong Kong. Operators and businesses should see reduced disruption risks as the network now leverages more diverse, redundant cable paths.
The takeaway
Reliability in subsea networks now relies on diversification to counter the high frequency of human-caused cable faults. Watch for future performance benchmarks on this route compared to the TRANSKZ terrestrial corridor.
Further reading
For more on infrastructure resilience, explore the Data Centers section.
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