Japan-Guam-Australia North (JGA-N)

Overview

Japan-Guam-Australia North (JGA-N) is a submarine cable system spanning approximately 2,600 kilometres across the western Pacific Ocean. It connects Japan and Guam, serving a corridor that links one of Asia's most cable-dense countries with a mid-Pacific hub that anchors a substantial number of international cable systems. The cable has been in service since 2020 and is owned by Lightstorm Telecom.

Route and Landings

In Japan, JGA-N lands at Minamiboso, a coastal location in the Chiba region that serves several international submarine cable systems.

In Guam, the cable comes ashore at Piti, a landing point on the island's western coast that hosts connections to numerous trans-Pacific cable systems.

Ownership and Operators

JGA-N is owned solely by Lightstorm Telecom. Lightstorm Telecom is a wholesale international bandwidth provider with a focus on trans-Pacific and Asia-Pacific connectivity.

Status and Timeline

JGA-N entered service in 2020 and has been operational for approximately six years. The system is currently in service, providing active connectivity between Japan and Guam.

Regional Context

The Japan–Guam corridor is served by a range of cable systems of varying length and vintage. JGA-N, at 2,600 kilometres, is a comparatively short system within this corridor — longer than 27% of the other cables touching the same countries. Regional peers include longer trans-Pacific routes such as the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) Cable System and EAC-C2C, as well as more recently built systems like Bifrost and Bulikula, which are either newly in service or still planned. JGA-N's relatively direct, two-point route between Minamiboso and Piti distinguishes it from these larger, multi-country systems.

Guam hosts 17 submarine cables across five landing points, while Japan is served by 38 cables across 46 landing points, reflecting the density of infrastructure in both territories. Latency measurements recorded over the past 60 days across 105 ping tests show an average round-trip latency of 135.7 milliseconds, with a best recorded figure of 35.9 milliseconds.

Strategic Role

JGA-N provides a direct, dedicated connection between Japan and Guam under single ownership, linking Japan's extensive submarine cable network with Guam's role as a mid-Pacific junction point. The cable's short, focused route between two landing points offers a straightforward path between these two territories in the western Pacific.