Alcatel-Lucent and Finnish government-owned venture Cinia Group (previously Corenet) will deploy an undersea cable system that will provide the first direct link between the Nordic region and continental Europe. The project, named Sea Lion, calls for the deployment of a new 100Gbps system that will span more than 1,100km from Helsinki, Finland, to the Rostock-Ribnitz area in Germany. Designed with an ultimate capacity of 15Tbps, Sea Lion is part of the Finnish government’s strategic plan to enhance the country’s international data transfer capacity. The data will be then transported across Finland via a fibre-optic network running along the national rail infrastructure. Sea Lion is expected to be completed in early 2016
BT Group has confirmed that its GBP26.9 million (USD42.2million) strand of the 250-mile GBP146.0 million Digital Highlands and Islands rollout is now complete, bringing fibre broadband to a number of Scotland’s most remote communities. The deployment, which consisted of a record-breaking 20 seabed crossings, has been hailed as the most complex sub-sea engineering challenge ever undertaken by BT in UK waters. The carrier has laid cable between the following exchanges: Largs–Millport; Kilchattan Bay–Millport; Rothesay–Toward; Kilfinan– Lochgilphead; Campbeltown–Shiskine; Corrie–West Kilbride; Jura–Port Askaig; Glenbarr– Port Ellen; Jura–Ormsary; Kilchoan–Tobermory; Craignure–Oban; Ardgour–Onich; Stornoway–Ullapool; Lochmaddy–Leverburgh; Carnan–Dunvegan; Ardvasar–Mallaig; Dervaig–Scarinish; Lochboisdale–Eriskay; Eriskay–North Bay; Evie–Westray.
The 39,000km SEA-ME-WE-3 submarine cable linking 39 countries between Japan and Germany was cut once again this week, and is currently undergoing repairs. The break is believed to be in the Jakarta-Singapore section of the cable, the cause for which remains unknown. Australian broadband users are among the worst affected, with Australian ISP iiNet warning customers: ‘Our network partners have advised that the repair ship has arrived at the fibre break point’ and advising them of ‘slower than expected speeds, latency and packet loss to international destinations in Asia’.
KVH Co (previously KVH Telecom) has announced a new backhaul service in Japan that connects the Shima Cable Landing Station (Shima City, Mie Prefecture) with Tokyo and Osaka through KVH’s Ethernet backbone network. This new backhaul service, which will be commercially available from 15 December, will be offered in either 10Gbps or 100Gbps, and augments KVH’s existing portfolio of backhaul services from Chikura Cable Landing Station and Toyohashi Cable Landing Station.
Thailand’s TCC Technology (TCCT) and Singapore’s 1-Net have signed a partnership arrangement with United Information Highway (UIH) to enable stable connectivity via UIH’s secured network, which has extensive coverage areas across Thailand. The two companies will combine their marketing activities to resell each other’s data centres via UIH’s fibre network and core nodes, allowing connectivity between Bangkok and Singapore gateways, providing international voice, data, and other telecoms services.
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