Japanese telco IPS is planning to build a cable landing station (CLS) worth 23 billion yen ($141 million) in the city of Wakayama, near Osaka, according to an IPS announcement on Thursday, July 2.
This figure, which is an initial estimate, also includes the cost of developing a branch of a planned subsea cable project called Candle, which was announced in 2025.
Candle is an 8,000km (4,971 mile) project led by SoftBank and Meta with participation from IPS, Telkom Malaysia, and Indonesia’s XL Smart that will land in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
It is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.
The telco said that it was commencing a study on the feasibility of the CLS with the “intention of commercializing the project.”
Candle is also set to land at SoftBank’s Maruyama landing station in Minamiboso City, located at the southern edge of Chiba Prefecture.
IPS also owns Infinivan, a Philippines-based consumer network business.