Orange has announced the launch of a fully resilient global connectivity capability along the world’s busiest route, using two state-of-the-art subsea mega cables connecting France and the US.
The new transatlantic route on the ‘AMITIE’ mega submarine telecommunications cable is now ready for service. After almost four years of work between the two continents and the completion of validation tests, the cable offers a fully secure solution to complement the other mega-cable (Dunant) launched in January 2021.
With a total length of 6,800 km and 16 fibre pairs, and a maximum capacity of 400 Tbps, AMITIE will connect Lynn near Boston (USA), Le Porge near Bordeaux (France) and Bude (England). Orange will benefit from two pairs of optical fibres on this new system, guaranteeing resilience and continuity of traffic on the transatlantic route, which is key for global Internet connectivity. With traffic continuing to grow strongly 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.’ (Source: TeleGeography’s Transport Networks – Transatlantic 2023)
Orange reaffirms its key role in connecting the transatlantic route by offering 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 strategic axis. Their respective latencies of 38ms (Ashburn – Paris) for Dunant and 34ms (Bordeaux – New York) for AMITIE ensure excellent quality of experience and service.
These two mega 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.
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 smooth operation, from the limit of French territorial waters to the new Equinix data centre in Bordeaux.
Orange also offers its wholesale and enterprise customers connectivity from the US to European hotspots, thanks to the capillarity of its European network. By relying on its extended terrestrial network starting in Bordeaux, Orange can connect the rest of Europe and notably the main European hubs (Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam and London) via different secured routes, either with dark fibre, or via its cutting-edge 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 US.
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