Aqua Comms Announces Completion of Its Next-Generation Subsea Cable System

America Europe Connect Set to Provide Secure, Low Latency and High Capacity Connectivity From New York to Dublin, London and Beyond to Greater Europe


DUBLIN, IRELAND--(Marketwired - Dec 1, 2015) - Aqua Comms Limited (Aqua Comms), a provider of scalable, subsea capacity-based network solutions, announces today that it has completed the final splice of its America Europe Connect (AEConnect) subsea fiber optic cable system completing the marine segment. Scheduled to be ready for service by January 31, 2016, AEConnect spans more than 5,536 km across the Atlantic with strategically placed stubbed branching units to facilitate future extensions of the system. The system provides secure, low latency, high capacity connectivity from New York to Dublin, London and beyond to greater Europe.

Envisioned to revolutionize connectivity between North America, the United Kingdom and Europe, Aqua Comms' AEConnect is one of the first subsea cables constructed between New York City and London in nearly 15 years. Featuring the latest technology of 130 Gbps x 100 Gbps per fiber pair, it is specifically designed to meet the growing bandwidth requirements demands of global data centers, carriers, cloud-based networks, financial services market participants and content providers. With more than 52 Tbps of available capacity, the 100G-compliant system will utilize innovative optical technologies to provide the most advanced subsea system, combined with a control plane based on a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology to serve bandwidth-intensive applications.

"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, Chief Financial Officer, Aqua Comms. "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 and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, dedicated three vessels to the surface-lay, burial and post-lay inspection of the AEConnect subsea cable, including the cable ships Reliance, Decisive and Responder, with the former executing the final splice. The AEConnect system is designed to provide the most secure transatlantic cable system in existence. On both the U.S. and European sides, the cable transverses the minimum length of shallow water along the continental shelf, while additional armouring and deeper burial was obtained. The cable also avoids major fishing grounds and shipping anchorage areas that are known to expose subsea cables to damage. In addition to its highly secure routing, AEConnect delivers one of the lowest latency crossings of the Atlantic.

For more information about AEConnect, visit www.AquaComms.com/ or email info@aquacomms.com.

About Aqua Comms Limited
Aqua Comms Limited (Aqua Comms) is the owner and operator of the transatlantic cable AEConnect and the Irish Sea cable CeltixConnect, and was established to build, acquire or merge with subsea fiber optic cable networks to provide capacity networking solutions to the global media, content providers and IT companies. To learn more about Aqua Comms and its new transatlantic subsea cable system, AEConnect, visit www.AquaComms.com.