Tuesday Roundup: FirstLight, Ciena, Verizon, Google, Sparkle

Two bits of news from the northeastern US, one from the Mediterranean, and a couple from Australia:

FirstLight has finalized an agreement to build new fiber infrastructure with the Maine Connectivity Authority. The new network will put 450 miles of fiber to work in western Maine, starting with the Bethel. The project targets some 6,600 locations in underserved areas, representing an investment of some $11M. It’s a long term project in a remote area that is not expecte3d to be complete until 2029.

Ciena and Verizon have been busy trialing next generation hardware. The two have successfully demonstrated a 1.6Tbps link on a single carrier wavelength in the Boston metro area. The trial leveraged Ciena’s WL6e solution on 118km of fiber over 10 hops touching 9 ROADMs while saving 50% in space and power per bit. According to Verizon, the technology will help them keep up with demand from AI workloads.

Several new bits of cable landing infrastructure are being prepared in Australia in advance of Google’s Tabua and Honomoana cables. Google is working with NEXTDC and the Sunshine Coast Council to build infrastructure in Maroochydore, coming ashore at NEXTDC’s SC1 facility. Meanwhile they have also teamed up with SUBCO to develop locations at Maroubra near Sydney and at Torquay near Melbourne.

Sparkle says it has opened an IP node near the Italian city of Genoa. The new node will be located at the company’s Genoa Landing hub in Lagaccio and will serve as an interconnection point for Ge-DIX as well as an on-ramp for the BlueMed and Blue & Raman subsea cable systems. A full range of managed and IP transit services will be available from the node.

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Categories: Internet Backbones · Metro fiber · Telecom Equipment · Undersea cables