INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling
Equinix and Crosslake Fibre to deliver connectivity with new London-to-Paris subsea cable
Equinix , the world ’ s digital infrastructure company , and Crosslake Fibre , a leading provider of network services , have announced that CrossChannel Fibre , a new international fibre-optic cable project , will connect to Equinix data centres in London and Paris . The new system will be delivered by Crosslake Fibre to Equinix ’ s International Business Exchange ( IBX ) data centres – LD4 in London and PA7 in Paris , via landings in Brighton and Veules-les-Roses . CrossChannel Fibre will be the first subsea fibre-optic project laid across the English Channel in nearly 20 years and is due to be ready for service in Q4 2021 .
Built by Crosslake Fibre and terminating in Equinix data centres , the 520 km build with 96 fibre pairs will be capable of delivering over 20 terabits per fibre pair , with the new network due to be the lowest latency fibre network between London and Paris . The project marks the second collaboration between Crosslake Fibre and Equinix , the first being connectivity between Toronto and Secaucus , New Jersey .
Crosslake Fibre selected Equinix data centres LD4 and PA7 as landing hubs due to the comprehensive digital ecosystems housed there , including a variety of key business partners such as Network Service Providers ( NSPs ), Cloud Service Providers ( CSPs ) and leading companies across the financial services , media and entertainment , gaming and e-commerce industries .
Data traffic is proliferating around the world and 99 % of global transoceanic traffic is being delivered via subsea cables . As global enterprises look to capitalise on business opportunities in Europe , they are finding they also require more capacity to run distributed IT operations at the digital edge , including cloud-based applications . By connecting to Equinix data centres , Crosslake Fibre and its users can leverage Equinix ’ s mature business ecosystems and interconnection platform – Platform Equinix – which connects close to 10,000 businesses in over 60 markets around the globe .
Eugene Bergen Henegouwen , President , EMEA , Equinix , said : “ We are adding new connection points for subsea cables to increase our vast network reach across the globe . Equinix brings global consistency and scale to subsea cable operators , including Crosslake Fibre , for them to connect into multi-tenant facilities to monetise their cable with a diverse set of ecosystems , developing a new business model with a low-latency reach to critical partners . As a result , Equinix customers benefit from an ever-expanding choice of network connectivity , at increasing speeds – a win-win for everyone . Excitingly , this cable marks the first subsea fibre-optic project across the English Channel in nearly 20 years , connecting the UK and France and furthering their advancement as two major growth digital metros .” p
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