By Francois Giudice, Bureau Chief, France

Orange is announcing that a new transatlantic route on the “AMITIE” mega submarine telecommunications cable is now ready for service. After almost four years of work between the two continents and the completion of validation tests, the cable offers a fully secure solution to complement the other mega-cable (Dunant) launched in January 2021.

A unique, high-performance, and robust solution on the transatlantic route

With a total length of 6,800 km and 16 fiber pairs, and a maximum capacity of 400 Tbps, AMITIE will connect Lynn near Boston (USA), Le Porge near Bordeaux (France) and Bude (England).

Orange will benefit from two pairs of optical fibers on this new system, guaranteeing resilience and continuity of traffic on the transatlantic route, which is key for global Internet connectivity. With traffic continuing to grow strongly to support the rise in digital uses, particularly those of content providers, the North America / Europe route is one of the densest on the planet in terms of connectivity. According to Telegeography, it uses “571 Tbps of international bandwidth. It is twice as busy as the transpacific route and the second busiest in the world.”” (Source TeleGeography’s Transport Networks – Transatlantic 2023)

Orange reaffirms its key role in connecting the transatlantic route by offering connectivity solutions from New York or Ashburn in the US to Europe using a fully resilient terrestrial connectivity solution in France.  Although both join the US to France, the Dunant and AMITIE cables have separate routes, avoiding any risk of traffic interruption on this strategic axis. Their respective latencies of 38ms (Ashburn – Paris) for Dunant and 34ms (Bordeaux – New York) for AMITIE ensure excellent quality of experience and service..

These two mega cables have been designed to keep pace with future generations of optical transmission technologies and will be able to maintain a high level of performance for the next 20 years.

Direct access to global connectivity hotspots

In France, Orange oversees the French part of the cable, and is in charge of operating and maintaining the system’s landing station. It provides all AMITIE cable partners with the terrestrial infrastructure required for its smooth operation, from the limit of French territorial waters to the new Equinix datacenter based in Bordeaux.

Orange also offers its wholesale and enterprise customers connectivity from the USA to European hotspots, thanks to the capillarity of its European network. By relying on its extended terrestrial network starting in Bordeaux, Orange can connect the rest of Europe and notably the main European hubs (Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam and London) via different secured routes, either with dark fiber, or via its cutting-edge WDM optical transmission network.  The routes between Bordeaux and Marseille have also been reinforced to offer the most direct and efficient solution to link Africa,the Middle East  and Asia to the United States.

An environmentally friendly project

From its study phase to its construction, the AMITIE cable integrated the highest standards in terms of environmental protection. The choice of landing site and infrastructure was made to avoid the most sensitive zones and using the least invasive technologies.

In France, the infrastructure is mostly underground and completely integrated into the landscape. For example, horizontal directional drilling was chosen, to go under the forest, dunes and beach, avoiding any impact on flora and fauna.

The cable in French territorial waters and beyond is also buried in the seabed to avoid any conflict with fishing activity.

Finally, by deploying the latest optical fiber and transmission technologies, the energy cost per megabit transported is significantly reduced.

“Thanks to the combination of these two mega submarine cables: AMITIE and Dunant, Orange puts France at the heart of intercontinental exchanges, between Europe and the United States, as well as to Asia and Africa, by offering high-performance, fully secure international connectivity to its wholesale and enterprise customers. In this way, Orange continues to be a major player in the global market, developing its infrastructures to connect France to other continents in a totally secure and environmentally friendly way”, explains Director of International Networks and Services at Orange Jean-Louis Le Roux.