Superloop launches TKO Express in HK

Australia-based fiber operator Superloop has switched on the TKO Express, the first subsea cable directly connecting Hong Kong's Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate and Chai Wan.

The TKO Express comprises 1,728 fiber cores, making it the world's highest core count subsea cable. The cable provides a direct link between two areas containing some of Hong Kong's key data centers.

Superloop now has around 110km of fiber in Hong Kong combining three campus loops - Chai Wan, Tseung Kwan O and Tsuen Wan – with diverse backbone links.

The company's country manager for Hong Kong and TKO Express project leader Susana Halliday said the cable system has been designed to add resiliency to its network.

“Early in the design stage of the Hong Kong network, our networks architects raised a critical problem with diverse connectivity to data centers within the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, due to the geographical and physical constraints along Wan Po Road,” she said.

“Many of our customers would not accept a network with a single area of failure, particularly those in the finance sector, so we developed an alternative solution with the TKO Express cable system, to provide a geographically separate route for this exceptionally important area.”

Superloop CEO Bevan Slattery shared the inside story of the construction of the TKO Express earlier this month.