America-Europe Connect submarine cable network completes marine construction

Aqua Comms Ltd. says construction of the marine segment of its America-Europe Connect (AEConnect) submarine cable network has completed. The undersea cable system is on track to be ready for service by January 31, 2016.

The 5,536-km transatlantic submarine cable network will offer service among New York, Dublin, and London, with connectivity to other parts of Europe (see "America-Europe Connect submarine network construction begins"). It offers more than 52 Tbps of available capacity and a software-defined networking (SDN) friendly control plane based on optical transmission equipment supplied by Ciena Corp. (NYSE:CIEN; see "AquaComms taps Ciena for AEConnect transatlantic submarine cable system").

"With the final splice of the subsea portion of AEConnect complete, we stand on the cusp of providing unprecedented transatlantic capacity and reliability connecting New York to London and beyond to greater Europe," states Martin Roche, Aqua Comms' CFO. "While commemorating this major milestone event, I would like to point out the exceptional service provided by our partner, TE SubCom, whose expertise, contingency planning, and cable laying operations, which they delivered within an aggressively condensed timeframe, made this extraordinarily complex undertaking a resounding success."

TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, devoted the cable ships Reliance, Decisive, and Responder to the surface-lay, burial, and post-lay inspection of the subsea cable. Reliance performed the final splice. The deployment plan saw the cable transverse the minimum length of shallow water along the continental shelf while leveraging cable armoring and deep burial. The cable route was designed to avoid major fishing grounds and shipping anchorage areas to reduce the chance of a cable cut.

On land, Equinix will provide access to the submarine network in New York and London (see "Equinix to supply access points for AquaComms AEConnect transatlantic submarine network"). Digital Realty also will provide access to the system in New York.

Aqua Comms has announced Microsoft as a "foundation customer" for the system (see "Microsoft invests in transatlantic submarine network capacity").

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