Orange is announcing a new transatlantic route on the ‘AMITIE’ mega submarine telecommunications cable is ready for service. After almost four years of work between the two continents and the completion of validation tests, the cable offers a secure solution to complement the other mega-cable (Dunant) launched in January 2021.
With a total length of 6,800 km and 16 fiber pairs, and a maximum capacity of 400 Tbps, AMITIE will connect Lynn near Boston (United States of America), Le Porge near Bordeaux (France), and Bude (England).Orange will benefit from two pairs of optical fibers on this new system. With traffic continuing to grow to support the rise in digital uses, particularly those of content providers, the North America/Europe route is one of the densest on the planet in terms of connectivity. According to Telegeography, it uses “571 Tbps of international bandwidth. It is twice as busy as the transpacific route and the second busiest in the world.”
Orange offers connectivity solutions from New York or Ashburn in the US to Europe using a fully resilient terrestrial connectivity solution in France. Although both join the US to France, the Dunant and AMITIE cables have separate routes, avoiding any risk of traffic interruption on this axis. Their respective latencies of 38ms (Ashburn – Paris) for Dunant and 34ms (Bordeaux – New York) for AMITIE help ensure the quality of experience and service.
These two cables have been designed to keep pace with future generations of optical transmission technologies and will be able to maintain a high level of performance for the next 20 years.
Direct access to global connectivity hotspots
In France, Orange oversees the French part of the cable and is in charge of operating and maintaining the system’s landing station. It provides all AMITIE cable partners with the terrestrial infrastructure required for its operation, from the limit of French territorial waters to the new Equinix datacenter based in Bordeaux.
Orange extends its connectivity services to wholesale and enterprise clients, enabling them to access European hotspots from the USA, leveraging the extensive reach of its European network. By relying on its extended terrestrial network starting in Bordeaux, Orange can connect the rest of Europe and main European hubs (Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam, and London) via different secured routes, either with dark fiber, or via its WDM optical transmission network. The routes between Bordeaux and Marseille have also been reinforced to offer the most direct and efficient solution to link Africa, the Middle East, and Asia to the United States.
WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is a technique used by telecommunications operators to increase the data transfer rate on fiber optics.
An environmentally friendly project
From its study phase to its construction, the AMITIE cable integrated high standards in terms of environmental protection. The choice of landing site and infrastructure was made to avoid the most sensitive zones and use the least invasive technologies.
In France, the infrastructure is mostly underground and completely integrated into the landscape. For example, horizontal directional drilling was chosen, to go under the forest, dunes, and beach, avoiding any impact on flora and fauna.
The cable in French territorial waters and beyond is also buried in the seabed to avoid any conflict with fishing activity. Finally, by deploying the latest optical fiber and transmission technologies, the energy cost per megabit transported is reduced.
“Thanks to the combination of these two mega submarine cables: AMITIE and Dunant, Orange puts France at the heart of intercontinental exchanges, between Europe and the United States, as well as to Asia and Africa, by offering high-performance, fully secure international connectivity to its wholesale and enterprise customers,” explains Jean-Louis Le Roux, director of international networks and services at Orange. “In this way, Orange continues to be a major player in the global market, developing its infrastructures to connect France to other continents in a totally secure and environmentally friendly way.”
Orange landed the “AMITIE” submarine telecommunications cable on a beach in the commune of Le Porge, near Bordeaux (Gironde) back in September 2021. The same year Digicel’s Deep Blue One submarine network has allowed Orange to provide connectivity to the French Guiana through the buildout of the French Guiana to Trinidad leg of the subsea cable.
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