The approximately 1,500km long cable system is built with Xtera’s Raman-based submarine repeaters that is said to provide optical transmission benefits such as wider spectrum and higher tolerance to strong increases in span loss, compared with repeaters based on erbium-doped fibre amplifiers.
Xtera has completed testing all fibre pairs between the two landing sites in the fourth quarter of 2015.
“This new repeatered project has been deployed after the successful upgrade of the high capacity, undersea Guernsey optical-fibre (HUGO) subsea cable system connecting Porthcurno, Guernsey and Lannion, where Xtera’s next generation wideband repeaters were inserted into the existing cable plant to increase system capacity,” said Stuart Barnes, senior vice president and general manager of Xtera Submarine Business.
“Our innovative repeater adds nicely to our portfolio of flexible solutions for building new subsea infrastructure, upgrading existing cable assets under water, or recovering and re-laying existing cable assets and confirms Xtera’s position as a global turnkey supplier for the subsea cable system industry,” he added.
The HUGO subsea cable system is partly owned by Sure, a supplier of telecoms services in Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. The project is reportedly the first deployment of Xtera’s repeater in a commercial system, as well as the first deployment of a Raman-based submarine repeater.
