Int’l bytes: AquaComms, Ciena, Arelion, Aruba, Sparkle, RETN

Four bits of interesting infrastructure news from across the Atlantic:

AquaComms and Ciena have achieved a new speed record under the Atlantic. They have teamed up to trial Ciena’s WL6e next generation optics, achieving a 1.3Tbps link on the 5500km AEC-1 cable route between the US and Ireland. They also achieved 800Gbps on the unregenerated 11,000km round trip.

Arelion is extending its reach in southern Europe. They will be opening a new point of presence at Aruba’s IT4 facility in the Italian capital of Rome in Q1 of next year. Aruba’s Hyper Cloud Data Center will target demand from cloud and AI sources and at full buildout will offer 74,000 square meters and 30MW of power across five facilities. DC-A is already operational and the second will go live in the first half of 2025.

Sparkle’s subsea infrastructure will be taking on a new task alongside handling its usual bandwidth tasks. Sparkle has signed an MoU with Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology that will see its submarine cables help monitor seismic activity in the Mediterranean. Thus far those activities have been on the Mednautilus cable, which connects Sicily to the east.

And RETN has extended its interconnection reach deeper into southwestern Europe. They have added Espanix to their Remote IX portfolio, bringing a dark fiber connection into Espanix Mesena Datacenter in Madrid. Spain’s importance to Europe’s internet infrastructure ecosystem continues to rise, and access to RETN’s Eurasian network infrastructure will only feed into that.

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Categories: Datacenter · Interconnection · Telecom Equipment · Undersea cables