Data center and dark fiber provider DC BLOX has opened a new cable landing station (CLS) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, claiming it’s created a “vital” connectivity hub in the southeast U.S.
Spanning 125,000 square feet, the CLS can host up to five subsea cables as well as colocation space for network and cable operators, communications providers and local enterprises.
A CLS is a facility where undersea or submarine telecommunication cables come ashore, connecting to land-based power and networking infrastructure. DC BLOX’s CLS also touts a power capacity of 19 megawatts (one MW = 1 million watts).
Tech giants Google and Meta have already announced they will connect their subsea cables to the DC BLOX site. Google will have two cables connected to the CLS; the Firmina cable reaching Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and the Nuvem cable connecting Myrtle Beach with Portugal and Bermuda.
Whereas Meta – under its subsidiary Edge Holdings – plans to land its Anjana cable connecting to Spain.
“South Carolina is a growing innovation hub, bringing in new economic opportunities through digital infrastructure and other technology investments,” said Google Director of Partnerships Lee Livingston in a statement.
Indeed, broadband equipment vendors and data center providers are expanding their facilities in the southeast U.S. STL last month formally opened its first U.S.-based fiber factory in Lugoff, South Carolina, while Deep Edge just finished construction of a new interconnection data center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
DC BLOX is also building a dark fiber route that connects the Myrtle Beach CLS to its data center in Atlanta. The company said this will be the first direct east-to-west route in this part of the country, providing high-capacity direct access to “hundreds” of communications providers and “a rapidly growing population of regional data centers.”
DC BLOX currently has active data centers in Atlanta, Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama, Chattanooga, Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina and now Myrtle Beach.
“The grand opening of our new facility opens up opportunities for global and regional communications providers, hyperscalers, and enterprises to more easily participate in the global economy and to leverage this infrastructure to create an AI-driven future,” stated DC BLOX CEO Jeff Uphues.