Sumitomo Electric Supplies Two-Core Fiber for Petal

SubTel Forum, from Sumitomo Electric
September 22, 2026

Sumitomo Electric will supply its two-core optical fiber for Petal, the planned submarine cable linking France and the United States. The company’s September 22 announcement sets out its participation alongside Meta and NEC, highlighting the fiber technology behind the project’s ambition to carry data at petabit-per-second scale.

The partners assign distinct responsibilities to the project: Meta will finance and operate Petal, NEC will lead system design and construction, and Sumitomo Electric will manufacture the two-core fiber. The approximately 7,000 km cable is targeted to begin operations in 2029 according to the joint announcement published by Sumitomo Electric.

Petal combines two-core fiber with a repeater design intended to reduce electricity requirements and support power feeding from one end. Its 48 core-pairs would provide twice Anjana’s transoceanic capacity. Sumitomo Electric identifies its product as 2C Z-PLUS Fiber™ ULL, placing the supplier’s submarine fiber manufacturing expertise at the center of its contribution.

The technology builds on an earlier manufacturing milestone. In September 2023 Sumitomo Electric announced that it had brought this ultra-low-loss multicore fiber into mass production, with sales due to start the following month. The product uses pure silica core technology. Its design accommodates two independently transmitting optical cores within the dimensions normally occupied by a conventional single-core fiber.

That dimensional compatibility is a defining feature of the product. Sumitomo Electric’s launch documentation specifies a glass diameter of 125 µm and a coated diameter of 250 µm. The company explains that using two cores creates the potential to double transmission capacity while retaining those familiar outer dimensions, rather than requiring a larger individual fiber.

The company’s current product information lists typical attenuation of 0.155 dB/km and an effective area of 112 square micrometers, with applications spanning regional and transoceanic submarine networks. These are published product characteristics, rather than measurements of an installed Petal system. Together, the product history and the new supply announcement illustrate how Sumitomo Electric is taking its multicore manufacturing capability into a major commercial ocean-crossing project.

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