New US-backed Southeast Asia data cable to pick NEC or Alcatel as supplier, developer says

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MViSTA developers to choose supplier this month between NEC and Alcatel Submarine Networks
Project excludes Chinese suppliers and avoids South China Sea areas claimed by Beijing, developer says
$400 million cable is expected to start operating in late 2028
By Francesco Guarascio
HANOI, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Developers of a new US-backed undersea data cable linking Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand will this month select a cable supplier between Japan's NEC 6701.T and France's Alcatel Submarine Networks, a project executive told Reuters.
The 16-fibre-pair MViSTA cable is expected to enter service in late 2028 with an estimated cost of about $400 million, said Mark Procter, deputy head of Stavian High Tech Infrastructure, a unit of Vietnamese conglomerate Stavian Group and one of the project's developers.
The project's backers excluded Chinese suppliers from bidding and designed the route to avoid the vast area claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea, Procter said.
Stavian is also planning a data-centre campus in southern Vietnam linked to the cable, with "no Chinese company involved in any key technology deployed" in the cluster, he added. 
Communist-run Vietnam maintains a delicate balance between major powers and has emerged as a key arena in the competition between US and Chinese technologies, with Washington pressing Hanoi to avoid Chinese vendors in submarine cables, telecoms and AI technology due to concerns about security that could impact investments.
However, Vietnam last year awarded contracts to Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE for parts of its 5G rollout, in a major shift which raised concerns among US and European officials. 
MViSTA is backed by the US. APTelecom, a consultancy working with the US government on cable infrastructure, facilitated the formation of the group of shareholders, worked on the feasibility study and is helping secure customers for the cable and the data-centre campus, Procter said.
Alongside Stavian, the project's shareholders include Tokyo-based investment firm Midas Capital and LitUp Network, a subsidiary of Malaysia's OMS Group, which will be responsible for laying the 2,500-km (1,550-mile) cable, Procter said.
     
HYPERSCALE CAMPUS 
The cable's estimated cost, supplier shortlist and extent of US involvement are reported here for the first time.
The tender for the supply of the cable is underway with a decision on the winner slated for later in October, said Procter, who is also the chief operating officer of the special purpose vehicle set up to develop and operate the cable.
ASN said it does not comment on ongoing tendering activity.  NEC did not respond to a request for comment.
US cable maker SubCom was also invited to bid but declined because of existing commitments, Procter said.
The project is significant for Vietnam, which is prone to recurring cable outages and plans to expand the number of submarine cables connecting the country to at least 15 by 2030 from six now. Procter said the government sped up approval procedures for the project.
Stavian plans to connect the MViSTA cable to a new campus in southern Vietnam. The campus is designed to host data centres for "hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure operators", according to a September statement from the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), which is funding a feasibility study.
The study, due for completion in March 2027, will assess the deployment of trusted technology and evaluate whether US restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors could affect the planned 1-gigawatt infrastructure, Procter said. 
The cable-linked campus could address infrastructure constraints that have prevented big US tech firms from investing in data centres in Vietnam. But investments will also depend on Vietnam's regulatory framework, Procter said, with restrictions on cross-border data flows often cited by industry bodies as a key barrier.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Lincoln Feast.)
((francesco.guarascio@thomsonreuters.com))