AQUA COMMS
backhaul fibre to additional Points of Presence ( PoPs ). The second was Copenhagen to New Jersey and the third cable from Boston to a data centre in Slough is due this year ( 2022 ). This continues to build on its vision of efficient submarine infrastructure ownership with membership of the HAVFRUE consortium and development of CeltixConnect-2 and North Sea Connect .
“ We are putting high-grade electronics – the equivalent of electronics that go into a space vehicle – at the bottom of the ocean which is a place less visited than the moon & equally as inhospitable . It is a fascinating challenge both technically , politically and financially ,” said Bayliff who pointed out it takes a year to survey the exact route and the cable is laid “ with one metre accuracy along a 5,000km route ” with the whole project taking up to five years .
Power of fibre optics It ’ s incredible to think the first ever cable connection under the ‘ pond ’ was in 1858 when Queen Victoria sent a telegram to US President James Buchanan honouring his " great international work ". The message took over 17 hours to deliver , at two minutes and five seconds per letter by Morse code . Today an email will travel at 99 % the speed of light .
“ I love the interconnectivity of what Aqua Comms and Ontix is able to achieve together as neutral carriers ”
NIGEL BAYLIFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER , AQUA COMMS
While the method of laying the cables in the depths of the ocean – by uncoiling them from the inside of a boat – has not changed , today ’ s fibre optic cables are built to survive . The capacity of a modern fibre optic cable is in the order of hundreds of terabits – typically the equivalent of running more than 100m zoom video calls per second .
Bayliff , who was involved in laying one of the first private optical cables in 1988 highlights how connectivity speed has changed . “ The entire capacity of the whole cable was 400 megabits per second . We ' ve just launched a product which is 400 gigabits per second on one channel – that ' s one channel of 100 ’ s on one fibre pair of eight – on just one of our cables . That ’ s a thousand times more capable than the
186 February 2022