US-backed MViSTA cable to pick NEC or ASN as supplier by end of October
The developers of MViSTA, a 16-fibre-pair cable between Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, are choosing between NEC and Alcatel Submarine Networks. A project executive put the cost at about $400 million and said Chinese suppliers were shut out of the tender.
The group building MViSTA, a US-backed undersea cable connecting Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, plans to name its supplier later in October, with Japan's NEC and France's Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) the remaining candidates. Mark Procter, deputy head of Stavian High Tech Infrastructure (SHT) and chief operating officer of the project's special purpose vehicle, outlined the plan to Reuters.
Procter said the system will carry 16 fibre pairs, cost an estimated $400 million or so, and begin service in late 2028. LitUp Network, a subsidiary of Malaysia's OMS Group, is responsible for laying the 2,500-kilometre cable. The other shareholders are Stavian Group, the parent of SHT, and the Tokyo-based investor Midas Capital.
According to Procter, the backers barred Chinese suppliers from the tender and planned a route that stays clear of the wide area of the South China Sea that Beijing claims. He said the US cable maker SubCom was asked to bid but turned the invitation down because of other commitments. ASN declined to comment on a live tender, while NEC did not reply to a request for comment.
SHT later said Procter's remarks were his personal views. It said it was assessing the capabilities of global vendors and, in picking partners, it "does not discriminate against or exclude any provider based on their geographical origin or nationality."
The US connection runs through APTelecom, a consultancy that works with the US government on cable infrastructure. Procter said the firm helped assemble the shareholders, carried out the feasibility study, and is working to line up customers for both the cable and a data-centre campus.
Stavian intends to link the cable to a new campus in southern Vietnam. A September statement from the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) described the site as designed for "hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure operators". The USTDA is paying for a feasibility study due in March 2027. Procter said the study will look at trusted technology and at whether US limits on advanced semiconductor exports could affect the planned one-gigawatt facility. He added that investment will also hinge on Vietnam's regulatory framework, where cross-border data flow restrictions are often named by industry bodies as a key barrier.
Vietnam suffers repeated cable outages and aims to have at least 15 submarine cables by 2030, up from six now. Procter said the government accelerated approvals for the project. Last year Vietnam gave Huawei and ZTE contracts for parts of its 5G rollout, even as Washington urges Hanoi to avoid Chinese vendors in cables, telecoms and AI.