The French vendor has upgraded the route using multiple 100Gbps technology, in light of the continued global demand for data from capacity-hungry applications such as cloud computing and video-on-demand.
Richard Elliott, managing director of Apollo, said that wholesale providers are expecting higher speeds, faster provisioning and reliability.
“The deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G solution enables us to further meet these expectations on the largest international route in the world,” Elliot said. “At Apollo we only provide long-haul, high-capacity services, so getting this right is our entire focus.”
The Apollo system comprises two advanced fibre-optic cables; Apollo North which connects the UK to the US, and Apollo South linking France to the US. Collectively they span 13,000km.
Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G technology will enable each transatlantic route to carry capacity in excess of 25tbps, allowing Apollo to expand their networks seamlessly and cost-effectively.
“The supply of new capacity and connectivity, in the form of a new cable system or an upgrade, is key if new communications services are to be launched and fast-growing sectors like cloud computing and content delivery sustained,” said Philippe Dumont, president of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks. “Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G solution addresses Apollo’s and operators’ needs to cope with the demand for additional bandwidth capacity, along with a requirement for high accessibility to content, low latency and relevant security features.”
Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G technology was selected to upgrade the EASSy cable in Africa in January this year, and later in February the Libyan International Telecommunication Company (LITC) selected the technology to drive its subsea cable roll-out.
