Construction work and testing on the new trans-Atlantic Amitié subsea cable has been completed.
Aqua Comms, Meta, Microsoft, and Vodafone this week announced the completion of the 6,783 km (4,215 mile) Amitié subsea cable system. The cable is now fully commissioned and tested and was handed over to the consortium on July 16, 2023.
The trans-Atlantic cable system is the first to directly connect Boston to Europe and Bordeaux to North America, with landings in Lynn, Massachusetts; Widemouth Bay, England; and Le Porge, France. The cable will land in a new Equinix data center in Bordeaux.
Built by Alcatel Submarine Networks, the cable (also known as AEC-3 by Aqua Comms) has 16 fiber pairs and 400 Tbps, making it the highest-capacity transoceanic communications cable ever deployed.
First announced in 2020, the cable was originally set to go live in 2022
Andy Hudson, chief network officer, Aqua Comms, said: “Amitié, branded as AEC-3 on Aqua Comms’ network, adds a third high-capacity system to our transatlantic footprint offering enhanced diversity in both the US and Europe and delivering the latest technology to our customers.”
Gary Waterworth, investment manager, Meta said: “Amitié will increase telecommunications reliability, speed, and diversity of subsea cable routes between the continents helping to improve transmission capacity in North America and Europe. It’s a great example of tech and telecom companies collaborating to build digital infrastructure to benefit the countless people, businesses, and organizations who rely on global connectivity.”
Frank Rey, general manager, Azure Networking at Microsoft said: “As public and private sectors deepen their reliance on cloud technologies for economic growth and service improvement, Amitié will advance both resiliency and capacity for customers using our cloud services.”
Fanan Henriques, director, Vodafone business international & EU-cluster, said: “As a significant investor in submarine cables, Vodafone was able to bring its strong heritage and extensive expertise to the partnership. With transatlantic total bandwidth growth forecasted to increase six-fold over the next five years, it is essential that we keep our customers, partners and communities connected to vital services enabling the digital economy. The completion of the Amitié subsea cable will strengthen connectivity and add resilience between the U.S., France and the UK.”
Orange is the landing party in Le Porge. Exa owns the Lynn cable landing station (CLS) in the US. odafone is the landing party for the UK landing site at its Bude CLS.
