Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd. says it has signed a construction contract to build the Project Express segment of Hibernia Atlantic’s Global Financial Network (GFN). The system will involve a minimum of a four-fiber-pair repeatered submarine cable providing connectivity between New York and London. The new GFN segment initially will use 40G technology, with upgrades to 100G planned in the future.
Hibernia Atlantic has already trialled 100-Gbps technology from Huawei (see "Hibernia Atlantic plots transatlantic 100G course after trials with Huawei").
Project Express is scheduled to be ready for service during the summer of 2013 – a little later than originally planned (see "Hibernia Atlantic plans low-latency transatlantic submarine cable from New York to London"). Huawei Marine recently completed the first phase of the project’s marine survey work and is now commencing the manufacturing of the necessary cables and wet plant for the project.
The first phase of the system begins with laying a 4600-km cable from Brean in Somerset, UK, to Halifax, Canada. This cable will connect to Hibernia Atlantic’s existing cable, which runs from Halifax to the U.S., passing from Lynn, near Boston, and onwards to New York. The new system will also include five branching units for future improvements to connectivity to the U.S., continental Europe, and Ireland.
Hibernia Atlantic says that Project Express will become an essential route on its GFN, uniting hundreds of global banks and financial exchanges with a single connection. Project Express will offer what the company claims is the lowest latency route from New York to London with less than a 60 ms round trip, making it the fastest and most direct route connecting both major continents.
Nigel Bayliff, CEO, Huawei Marine, said, "Project Express is an exciting one for Huawei as it allows us to utilize our advanced digital coherent transmission technology, implement our delivery and installation capabilities, and draw on our experience from a number of submarine projects, to complete this significant and technically challenging system."