Emerald Atlantis Limited (EA) and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, have announced the finalization of an Instruction to Proceed (ITP) to build the Emerald Express Trans-Atlantic Cable System. The first phase will provide both low-latency and ultra-high bandwidth capacity between the US, Canada, UK and Iceland, requiring 5,200km of advanced submarine fibre optic cable. To achieve the desired ultra-high capacity rates, Emerald Express has been designed to support 100x100Gbs on each of its six fibre pairs.
The trans-Atlantic marine cable route survey between UK and Canada commences in early August and the Emerald Express system will enter service in late 2012. The Emerald Express system includes a high capacity connection to Iceland, allowing Iceland based data centres to offer ultra low latency connections to Europe and North America, and provides two stubbed branching units positioned off Newfoundland and Ireland to support future connectivity.