• AWS is developing the Sta’O’Nuk subsea cable between Washington state and Japan with 420Tbps of planned capacity across 20 fibre pairs
  • Toptana is building the Washington landing station and backhaul, while AWS has not disclosed the Japanese landing location

The Fact

Amazon Web Services is developing Sta’O’Nuk, a new subsea cable between the United States and Japan that it expects to become operational in 2029. AWS says the system is designed to provide 420Tbps of capacity across 20 fibre pairs.

The US end will land at Ocean Shores in Washington state, where Toptana Technologies has begun building a cable landing station and will provide backhaul services. AWS has not disclosed the Japanese landing location. The company says the two landing areas were selected to provide geographic separation from established trans-Pacific cable corridors.

Sta’O’Nuk is not yet operational. The 420Tbps figure is the cable's planned design capacity and does not represent capacity currently available on the AWS network.

The assessment

AWS has chosen landing areas outside several established US-Japan cable corridors because it wants Sta’O’Nuk to provide a geographically separate trans-Pacific path. That separation is part of the cable's design, but it does not exist as an operating network route yet.

Toptana has started work on the Washington landing station, while AWS has not disclosed the Japanese landing site. The subsea cable, both landing connections and the terrestrial backhaul must be completed and commissioned before AWS can carry traffic over the new path. The same limit applies to the 420Tbps figure: it describes what the system is designed to support, not capacity that AWS can use today.

For BTW readers, Sta’O’Nuk will add another physical path between the US and Japan only after that end-to-end work is finished. AWS currently expects service in 2029, so progress at both landing sites and confirmation that the complete system is ready for service will determine when the planned route becomes operating infrastructure.

What to watch

Watch construction at the Ocean Shores landing station, disclosure of the Japanese landing location and progress on cable installation. AWS's ready-for-service announcement will establish when the complete route is operating; any later disclosure of activated capacity would show how much of the 420Tbps design is initially available for use.