Orange is a partner in this 6,800 km state-of-the-art cable project, which will connect the state of Massachusetts, USA; Le Porge, France; and Bude, UK
Orange is imminently landing the “AMITIE” submarine telecommunications cable on a beach in the district of Le Porge, near Bordeaux (Gironde). With nearly 800km of fibre optic cable laid, this stage represents the first step of the cable’s roll-out. Commissioning is scheduled for early 2022.
Orange announced its involvement in the cable just last month.
“With this new agreement, we are again demonstrating our skills and expertise in transatlantic submarine cables. Against the backdrop of a boom in international traffic, the arrival of these increasingly efficient, cutting-edge submarine cables reinforces the strategic and national advantage linked to submarine cables. Orange continues to play a leading role in this global market and is committed to developing infrastructure to connect France to other continents,” explains JeanLuc Vuillemin, head of international networks and services at Orange.
With this new roll-out, Orange will benefit from two pairs of fibre optic cables as part of this new system, offering capacity up to 23 Tbp/s each. Orange is responsible for the French part of the cable as the ‘landing provider’, specifically operating and maintaining the system’s landing station. The French operator will supply the system’s links on land, starting from this station towards Bordeaux, then Paris and Lyon, and it will link up to the rest of Europe thanks to a terrestrial network employing cutting-edge optical technology.
The arrival of this new mega cable near Bordeaux represents an excellent opportunity for the region, which will become an international digital hub, allowing new data centres to be created to support the growth of the local digital ecosystem.
Thanks to the support of local partners, local authorities and service of the state, Orange was able to
launch this project, combining agility and efficiency, by reusing the existing infrastructure to minimise the work and limit the impact on local residents and the environment.
“As part of the AMITIE project coordinated by Orange, decentralised State services (sub-prefecture,
Land and Sea Regional Protection Agency (DDTM), General Secretariat for Regional Affairs (SGAR) and the Architecture Review Board (ABF)) have joined forces in Gironde to coordinate public partners (departmental council via Gironde Numérique and the departmental transport centre, Le Porge town hall, the regional council of Nouvelle Aquitaine, the maritime prefecture, the Ministry of Culture including the Department of Underwater Archaeological Research (DRASSM) and the French Rescue Archaeology Institute (INRAP)) as well as private partners (operator and appointed engineers). This included steering committees supervised by a lead sub-prefect which were organised every two months in the prefecture, then remotely. This is an example of public-private cooperation to create wealth and technological innovation able to demonstrate our country’s industrial capabilities. This project is part of a national policy to enhance the appeal of electronic communications cables. Completed on time despite the pandemic, it opens the door for others along our coast,” declared Fabienne BUCCIO, prefect of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and prefect of Gironde.
This essential project for Orange was implemented with a focus on the environment. The project’s design carefully considered the fragile nature of the sites involved (beaches, dunes, forests), and used the latest technologies to avoid impacting the ecosystem and local flora and fauna.
Directed horizontal drilling was conducted at 20 metres under the beach and dunes. The route to the landing station was optimised to avoid impacting the forest (use of existing paths and the edges of local roads). The new terrestrial infrastructure was studied by considering the department’s fibre optic deployment projects.
Thanks to the AMITIE cable, Orange can play a leading role in the transatlantic market, offering a totally secure end-to-end connection solution between Europe and the United States. The fibre optic technology is provided by two high-speed cables: AMITIE, plus the DUNANT system, which was recently commissioned in Vendée. As a result, Orange will be able to offer a connection solution between France & the USA to all its private customers, professionals, businesses and operators which is unique in terms of performance and reliability.
The Atlantic Ocean is one of the busiest submarine routes in terms of connectivity. On average, the traffic between Europe and North America doubles every two years, and it has experienced an unprecedented increase in traffic during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The AMITIE cable will be crucial to accommodate this future increase in traffic on different networks. Guaranteeing continued and reliable traffic is also crucial. The arrival of this state-of-the-art cable will offer full redundancy in this zone. This cable is also designed to evolve at the same pace as future generations of optical transmission technologies. It will be able to maintain a high level of performance for at least the next 20 years.
Orange continues to invest heavily in submarine cable projects to guarantee and continually improve the quality of service of its global network, comprising over 40 submarine cables. After recent projects on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, this new cable places France at the heart of the European platform used by various international networks to link to America, but also Africa and Asia.
Source: https://www.totaltele.com/508575/Orange-landing-the-transatlantic-Amiti-cable