Kanawa, which launched in January 2019 and links French Guiana with Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, is a 1,746km fibre cable system built, owned and operated by Orange, comprising of two pairs of subsea fibre.
Kanawa is one of the most powerful cables in the region, providing 100Gbps and up to 10Tbps of capacity, based on customer demand.
“French Guiana is experiencing rapid growth in digital technology,” said Jean-Luc Vuillemin, executive vice president of Orange International Networks Infrastructure and Services (pictured), who spoke to Capacity earlier this year.
Orange says that Kanawa is a “new internet highway and key driver of growth and development for French Guiana, delivers high-speed connectivity between French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe”.
Luc-Vuillemin added: “We needed to ensure the region keeps pace with the rest of the world, and Kanawa was our solution. Infinera’s cutting-edge technology enables Orange to increase capacity on demand and delivers the high performance we expected. Choosing to deploy Infinera’s technology is a significant benefit to us and our customers, providing us with an agile, scalable network.”
Kanawa is powered by Infinera’s fourth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE4)-based XTS 3600 platform and Infinera Instant Bandwidth.
Orange deployed Infinera’s ICE4-based platform and Instant Bandwidth on the Martinique-Guadeloupe segment. With Infinera’s solutions, Orange can increase capacity as needed within minutes, without requiring any additional work on its subsea network, a distinct advantage it can pass along to its customers.
“Orange’s selection of Infinera’s ICE4-based platform and instant bandwidth underscores the significant benefits of operating a cognitive network,” said Bob Jandro, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Infinera.
“We are delighted to work with Orange on this major deployment and look forward to enabling the Caribbean to connect globally.”
