PCCW Global signs up for AEConnect submarine cable capacity

PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, says it will take capacity on America Europe Connect (AEConnect), the transatlantic submarine cable that operator Aqua Comms Ltd. expects to be open for business by the end of this month (see "America-Europe Connect submarine cable network completes marine construction").

PCCW Global says it will use the undersea cable capacity for route diversity.

"Aqua Comms' AEConnect provides additional capacity, reliability, and security which PCCW Global integrates into its global network thereby delivering new low-latency connectivity between New York and London. We are confident that the AEConnect cable system provides the upward scalability and performance necessary to satisfy our business objectives," said Jordick Wong, senior vice president, product and vendor management at PCCW Global.

"Aqua Comms is pleased that PCCW Global has selected AEConnect, our next-generation fiber-optic cable system, to provide low-latency and high-capacity connectivity for its transatlantic backbone network between its New York and London points of presence," added Greg Varisco, Aqua Comms COO. "Offering diversity between two of its major international hubs, this highly secure and technologically advanced transatlantic system is also future-proofed against increased capacity requirements, a demand that only AEConnect, and not legacy systems, could satisfy."

The AEConnect submarine fiber-optic network offers 52 Tbps of capacity via 130 x 100 Gbps per fiber pair. It runs more than 5,536 km across the Atlantic, with stubbed branching units for future landings. Aqua Comms projects that the system's low-latency design will support traverse speeds of 53.9 ms. Ciena Corp. (NYSE:CIEN) has supplied the optical transport equipment (see "AquaComms taps Ciena for AEConnect transatlantic submarine cable system").

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer's Guide.