See story about Microsoft and Facebook building subsea cable across Atlantic:
http://seekingalpha.com/pr/16502598-microsoft-facebook-build…
Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook (FB) announced an agreement to build a new, state-of-the-art subsea cable across the Atlantic. The new “MAREA” cable will help meet the growing customer demand for high speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services for Microsoft, Facebook and their customers.
It also states the following:
MAREA will be the highest-capacity subsea cable to ever cross the Atlantic (AT) – eight fiber pairs and an initial estimated design capacity of 160Tbps. The new 6,600 km submarine cable system, to be operated and managed by Telxius, Telefónica’s new telecommunications infrastructure company
There is no mention of INFN directly, but I see that Telefonica is an INFN customer, anyone know, or able to find out if INFN equipment will be a part of this project?
Thanks,
Mike
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Mike, good sleuthing. What you have found is likely true:
From the article here http://seekingalpha.com/news/3185886-microsoft-facebook-buil…
Microsoft (MSFT -0.8%) and Facebook (FB +1.2%) are teaming up to lay a new subsea cable across the Atlantic to set a new standard for trans-Atlantic data transfers.
The MAREA cable combines eight fiber pairs and an initial transfer capacity of 160 Tbps, and is designed to be openly interoperable with a variety of networking equipment. It will run 6,600 km and take a more southerly route than other systems, connecting Northern Virginia to Bilbao, Spain, and then to other network hubs in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Building the cable begins in August, with completion expected October 2017.
Telxius – the infrastructure unit that subsea veteran Telefonica (TEF +1%) is considering giving an IPO this summer – will manage the new system.
Who are Telxius and Telefonica? Only the Infinera customer that openly demonstrated the first Network as a Service implementation with them:
https://www.infinera.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Infinera…
Again, great sleuthing.
Best,
–Kevin
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Just adding one more detail on this.
The landing site of the MAREA cable is the same as a Telefonica North/South cable already in place, and the site is already running Infinera gear. Telefonica uses Infinera a lot. Here was one of their more recent announcements from last October:
NEC of Japan has partnered with intelligent transport network provider Infinera for a project to expand the fibre-optic transmission networks belonging to Telefonica International Wholesale Services (TIWS) – the international infrastructure arm of Spain’s Telefonica Group – in Latin America. It is understood that the vendors are aiming to increase the capacity of the DWDM networks by deploying supper-channel technology capable of supporting 500Gbps. The project, which is already underway, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015. TIWS manages the group’s international fibre-optic network, with direct connectivity between Latin America, the US, Europe and Asia. It owns and operates the 20,000km SAm-1 submarine cable, which covers the South American region, and also holds a stake in the Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS), which recently activated a 6,000km submarine network between the US and Ecuador.
TIWS is now Telxius. Telefonica has saddled Telxius with all of the optical and fibre infrastructure assets and may be looking to spin off the Telxius unit in an IPO. Something to watch for.
Nothing is ever certain, but I would place it as a pretty good bet the unit will use Infinera again since they already have Infinera there as an endpoint. Given the timing (due to complete next year) it will also run on Infinera’s new ICE-enabled equipment.
Best,
–Kevin
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