Two fibre items from 8 and 9 October 2026: a Japanese company says its proposal for a new undersea-cable landing station has been selected, and a Scottish university has funding to test a new way of making hollow-core fibre.
IPS: a Wakayama landing station is selected, not yet funded
Confirmed (IPS, Inc., TDnet notice, 9 October 2026). IPS (Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime, code 4390) says its project to build an international submarine cable landing station in Wakayama City, and to install a new international cable, “has been selected” under the “Project to Strengthen Digital Infrastructure through Regional Decentralization of Data Centers, Submarine Cables, etc.” [1] A landing station is where an undersea cable comes ashore and joins land networks.
IPS says it “will now apply for a grant” and “expect to receive notification of the grant award” [1]. It estimates the whole project at “approximately 23 billion yen, including investments related to cable landing station facilities and the installation of international submarine cables”. That figure “does not indicate our company’s share of the costs” [1].
The station would be open-access, run through subsidiary IPS Pro, Inc., “independent of any specific telecommunications carrier”. The selection “is expected to have no impact on the Company’s consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2027” [1].
The notice gives no route, landing points, specifications or schedule; it says these will be coordinated with relevant parties. TSN read the English translation, which says the Japanese original prevails.
Strathclyde: £5.47 million to test protein-guided hollow-core fibre
Confirmed funding (University of Strathclyde, 8 October 2026); the method is unproven. Hollow-core fibres are “fine silica tubes designed to guide light through an empty central channel” [2]. Strathclyde says its scientists “received £5.47 million” for the “three-year CoreShell Fibre Foundry project, funded by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA)”, which “will investigate whether engineered proteins can guide how these fibres form” [2].
Such fibres are conventionally made by “complex, high-temperature drawing processes” [2]. The university says: “If successful, the work could lead to a new manufacturing approach” [2]. The project is one of 11 funded through ARIA’s £50 million Universal Fabricators programme, led by Professor Tell Tuttle [2][3]. Tuttle calls ARIA’s backing the environment needed to turn “reusable protein moulds for hollow-core optical fibres from a bold concept into a scalable manufacturing technology” [2]. That is an aspiration, not a result.
What this does not show
- A grant for IPS. It will now apply; nothing is awarded or funded yet.
- IPS’s own spending. The 23 billion yen covers the whole project.
- Working fibre from Strathclyde. The work tests an idea; no results are reported.
The Bottom Line
IPS has been selected and now applies for a grant, with no route or schedule given. Strathclyde has £5.47 million to test whether proteins can guide fibre formation.
Sources
- IPS, Inc., “Notice Regarding the Selection of Proposals for the International Submarine Cable Landing Station in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, and the International Submarine Cable Infrastructure Development Project”, TDnet notice, TSE Prime 4390, 9 October 2026 (company filing; English translation, original Japanese prevails).
- University of Strathclyde, “Strathclyde awarded £5.47 million to develop protein-programmed manufacturing technology”, 8 October 2026 (university news release; source of the quotes and figures).
- ARIA, “Universal Fabricators”, programme page, read 10 October 2026 (funder’s page; £50 million, 11 teams, “testing whether proteins could become ‘universal fabricators'”).
