Seaborn Networks, Aqua Comms join for submarine network connection between South America and Europe

Seaborn Networks, which owns and operates the newly open for service Seabras-1 submarine network between São Paulo and New York, and Aqua Comms DAC, which operates America-Europe Interconnect-1 (AEConnect), have agreed to link their submarine cable infrastructures. The result will be the offering of undersea fiber connections between South America and Europe.

The two networks will link in Secaucus, NJ, where Seaborn's primary network operations center resides. The two submarine network operators will then offer geographically diverse backhaul and points of presence (PoPs) in the metropolitan areas around their respective landing stations. The agreement covers other infrastructure the two companies might deploy in the future.

Seaborn and Aqua Comms say they will offer consolidated capacity contracts and billing, Seaborn's SeaSpeed low-latency service for financial institutions (see "Seaborn Networks offers SeaSpeed service between Carteret, NJ, and São Paulo"), as well as a high level of service overall.

"We are extremely pleased to partner with Aqua Comms to offer this precedent-setting Europe to South America route," said Larry Schwartz, CEO of Seaborn Networks. "Our organizations are like-minded operators with a shared view of how to offer best-in-class solutions for telecommunications companies, content providers, ISPs, governments, and enterprises."

"Aqua Comms and Seaborn share heritage and a common ethos for efficiently providing innovative, flexible and reliable connectivity solutions to the Atlantic telecommunications market," added Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Aqua Comms. "We both specialize in developing, constructing and operating modern, sophisticated submarine cable systems, and partnering will help us provide customers with the benefits of both conjoined networks."

The 10,600-km, six-fiber-pair Seabras-1 undersea cable system became operational last month (see "Seabras-1 submarine network operational with Infinera XTS-3300 meshponders"). AEConnect began operations last year and several customers have turned up service on the submarine cable system (see, for example, "CenturyLink activates 100-Gbps wavelengths on AEConnect transatlantic submarine network"). Aqua Comms also operates a sister system, CeltixConnect, that runs across the Irish Sea (see "CeltixConnect begins Ireland-UK submarine network construction").

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