Page 116 - SAMENA Trends - June-July 2025

TECHNOLOGY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

First New Subsea Cable Launched in the North Sea for in 25 Years

After a series of strategic partnerships and network expansions data transmission, including financial services, gaming, and
throughout 2024, EXA Infrastructure has announced a significant broadcasting. EXA’s network footprint extends over 155,000 km
advancement in Europe’s digital backbone with the deployment of across 37 countries and includes six transatlantic cables, boasting
a new high-capacity fiber route. This 1,200 km network connects the lowest latency transatlantic connection known as EXA Express.
key financial and data hubs in London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, In addition to this route, EXA has been active on several fronts in
and Brussels. It represents the first new subsea cable along 2024 to strengthen Europe’s critical infrastructure. The company
the North Sea corridor in 25 years, an infrastructure milestone signed a strategic partnership with SOCAR Fiber in July to develop
that aims to bolster the resilience and scalability of Europe’s terrestrial fiber routes offering diversity to traditional submarine
connectivity options. The route integrates 1,085 km of low-loss corridors such as the Red Sea route. Another partnership later
G.652D terrestrial fiber and a 115 km subsea segment running that year with Macarne, an advanced network solutions provider,
from Margate in the UK to Ostend in Belgium, featuring ultra-low- expanded onward connectivity through more than 500 optical
loss G.654C cable. Two new cable landing stations—EXA’s 21st Points of Presence linking major European hubs. EXA’s prominence
and 22nd globally—have been established for this route, along in the region was further heightened when it was selected by
with important upgrades to existing in-line amplifier facilities IOEMA as the landing partner for a new 1,600 km submarine
across the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands. EXA Infrastructure cable network launched in May 2024, connecting additional North
is uniquely positioned as the sole telecom consortium member Sea countries including Denmark and Norway. This collaboration
for the submarine portion of the cable, handling Landing Party and enhances backhaul connectivity to major data centers like London
backhaul services, underscoring its role as an essential provider in Telehouse and Equinix, addressing rising demands for low-latency,
the deployment. This expansion forms part of EXA’s broader vision high-capacity digital infrastructure in Northern Europe.
to modernize and optimize fiber paths between the prominent
FLAP hubs (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris), complementing
earlier investments in related infrastructure such as the Channel
Tunnel. According to EXA’s Chief Operating Officer, Ciaran Delaney,
the project faced “complex and challenging” regulatory and
environmental conditions, particularly concerning the subsea
installation over difficult seabed terrain. Nevertheless, the company
leveraged its extensive regional expertise and advanced technical
capabilities to overcome these hurdles and deliver next-generation
connectivity. The new fiber route offers ultra-low latency, with
estimated 6.2 ms latency to Amsterdam and 9.4 ms to Frankfurt,
supporting bandwidth capacities exceeding 5 Petabits per second.
This capacity and speed are critical for sectors requiring rapid

Zayo Europe Partners with Ciena for German Network Boost

Leading network infrastructure provider Zayo Europe has deployed Ciena, enables us to provide our customers with ultra-low latency
Ciena’s optical technology to launch a new German network connectivity and unparalleled support for AI and cloud services.”
covering 3,000km of fiber across 8 core domestic metros including said Colman Deegan, CEO, Zayo Europe. “There’s a growing need
Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Berlin. The network for high-capacity networks across Germany to meet the demands
also extends to a 14th key hub across the border in Strasbourg, of an increasingly digital economy. As a Carrier Managed Services
France. With Ciena’s Reconfigurable Line System (RLS) and partner leveraging Ciena optical technology, Zayo Europe can offer
WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) solutions, Zayo Europe can now offer differentiated wavelength services across its entire European
universal 400G wave services across key German markets, with footprint, including key long haul routes across Germany.” said
the scope to scale to 800G and 1.6Tb/s in the future as required. Virginie Hollebecque is Vice President and Leader of EMEA at
This will enable Zayo Europe’s customers to meet the rising Ciena. Ciena’s WL6e is the industry’s first high-bandwidth coherent
data demands driven by increased AI adoption and cloud usage. transceiver using state-of-the-art 3nm silicon to drive significant
“Germany is a key strategic market for Zayo Europe, and with the economic benefits for operators, including a 50% reduction in
EU pushing to advance AI capabilities across the continent, there’s space and power per bit. Ciena’s 6500 RLS is a compact, simple-
a pressing need for networks within Germany that can support to-deploy, photonic layer solution that improves scalability, reduces
these new workloads. Our approach to service delivery, utilizing footprint, and offers more flexibility and programmability.
the latest generation optical networking technology powered by

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