Nokia has been selected by Symphony Communication Public Company Limited to upgrade the Malaysia-Cambodia-Thailand (MCT) subsea cable system, replacing legacy equipment with Nokia Submarine Line Terminal Equipment powered by its sixth-generation Photonic Service Engines (PSE-6) coherent optics.
According to Nokia, the upgrade is intended to lift capacity to up to 30 Tbps per fibre pair—around three times that of the existing system—and provide low-latency connectivity between Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The companies said the increased capacity is aimed at supporting real-time use cases including AI inference, cloud bursting and mission-critical enterprise applications.
The MCT cable is the only subsea system landing in Rayong in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), an area positioned as a hub for data centre investment. Symphony and Nokia cited Thailand’s Board of Investment data indicating more than USD23 billion in data centre investment across 36 projects, a trend the companies say is driving demand for additional, high-capacity connectivity routes.
Nokia said the PSE-6 coherent optics would reduce network power consumption by 60%, which it linked to sustainability goals for subsea network operators. The deployment will also use Nokia’s WaveSuite optical network automation platform, which the vendor said would support multi-layer visibility and cross-domain automation for lifecycle operations and energy optimisation.
“We are pleased to expand our longstanding partnership with SYMPHONY from terrestrial and cross-border networks into the subsea domain. This upgrade will help deliver advanced, trusted connectivity across Southeast Asia and support Thailand’s ambition to become a regional hub for AI and cloud-driven digital services,” said Ajay Sharma, Country Manager of Thailand at Nokia.
“The MCT upgrade underscores our commitment to continuously improve network performance to provide the best-in-class experience to our customers. With Nokia’s submarine network solution, we will deliver unmatched capacity and reliability and become the connectivity partner of choice for hyperscalers and enterprises, building next-generation digital infrastructure hub in Southeast Asia,” said Alex Loh, Chief Executive Officer of Symphony Communication Public Company Limited.
The project highlights the growing importance of subsea infrastructure to Southeast Asia’s cloud and AI build-out, where capacity upgrades and power efficiency are increasingly being positioned as key differentiators for operators serving hyperscalers, OTT providers and enterprise customers.
