After the landing of the Dunant cable, a Google project announced back in March 2020, Orange announces it is now ready for service for its wholesale and business customers. With 12 fibre pairs with over 30 Tbps of capacity each, multiplying by three the previous generation of transatlantic submarine cables capacity.
Orange also announces the signature of a partnership on the AMITIÉ cable planned to be ready for service at the beginning of 2022. Pending the approval from the local authorities in the US, the cable shall link Massachusetts to le Porge near Bordeaux.
Two new generation cables to support increased bandwidth needs
The Atlantic Ocean is one of the world’s busiest routes in terms of connectivity with over 80% of internet traffic generated in France coming from the US. The traffic between North America and Europe doubles every two years on average, and this route has supported an unprecedented traffic surge during the first lockdown period of the current Covid pandemic.
Owning capacity on this route is therefore strategic to support traffic growth in the coming years,
The AMITIE submarine cable with its 16 fiber pairs of up to 23 Tbps of capacity each, will ensure resiliency and traffic continuity on this vital and important axis. Both these cables will have more capacity than all existing systems currently in service on the transatlantic front.
Jean-Luc Vuillemin Executive Vice President of Orange International Networks, Infrastructures and Services, said: “In the context of the explosion of international traffic, the arrival of a new generation of more efficient submarine cables, and in view of strategic issues and national sovereignty related to submarine cables, Orange continues to be a key global player. With capacity on these two cables, Orange will be able to offer the latest technology, diverse routes and the best latency to its customers once implemented.”
Furthermore, both cables are designed to evolve at the same pace as future generations of optical transmission technology and will be able to maintain high-level performance for at least the next 20 years.
The double role of Orange: Co-investor and also supplier
Orange will benefit from two fibre pairs on both transatlantic systems, with a total capacity of up to 100 Tbit/s, which represents 15 million HD movies downloaded simultaneously.
Orange is responsible for the French part of these two cables, as the “landing provider”, and is in charge of the operation and maintenance of the landing stations. With the arrival of a new mega cable near Bordeaux, the area will transform into a new international digital hub, fostering the implantation of new datacenters to support the region’s digital ecosystem.
The French operator will supply land links for both systems from the landing station to Bordeaux and then to Paris and Lyon for one, and will offer capacity between Ashburn, the Datacentre alley and Paris, will the latest Point-to-Point optical transmission technology.
Orange has a long-term, secure solution for all its clients
With this reinforced presence on the transatlantic front, Orange now offers a global end-to-end, fully secured connectivity solution between Europe and the United States. With its optical fibre-pairs on two new generation ultra-high-speed cable systems, Orange will serve the consumer, wholesale and business markets in Europe and in America, with a unique, low latency global France – US connectivity solution, performant and redundant.
“At Orange, we invest continually to provide faster, more flexible and more secured connectivity and these two new cables will enable us to get even closer to our customers in today's data-hungry environment,” said Emmanuel Rochas CEO of Orange International Carriers. “Orange provides an enriched multiservice offering for carriers and content providers to better support their development strategies and ultimately to offer improved services to retail and business customers.”
Orange, a major player in the global connectivity and submarine cable markets
With these two new systems, the French operator demonstrates its global submarine cable credentials and expertise. Orange continues to make substantial investments in international connectivity projects, to guarantee and continue to improve the quality of its international network service with more than 40 submarine cables throughout the world,
Following recent projects on the Atlantic front, but also in the Mediterranean, the arrival of this new cable places France at the heart of the European hub, from which many international networks set off for America, but also Africa and Asia.
With customers all over the world, Orange’s global network footprint connects more than 300 Points of Presence with 45,000 km of fiber across Europe, the US, Africa and Asia.
Through its subsidiary, Orange Marine, the company also has access to a fleet of survey and cable ships, and internationally-recognised expertise, placing it at the heart of deployment and maintenance for these connections, which are vital to all of its communications.
