CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) has made another move to expand its global reach by purchasing capacity on Ireland-based Emerald Express submarine cable network, a move that will give it additional connectivity between North America and Europe.
Set to start offering services by Q4 2014, the Emerald Express undersea cable system will provide connections to North America, Europe and Iceland.
Similar to other emerging submarine cable systems like Seabras-1, this new system will be able provide customers like CenturyLink 100G wavelengths and higher speeds. The Emerald Express System features 4 fiber pairs and is designed at 100 waves x 100 Gbps each, providing a total of 40 Tbps of capacity.
A big part of this agreement will focus on providing connectivity between the growing base of data centers CenturyLink operates in Europe via its Savvis subsidiary.
Pieter Poll, CenturyLink senior vice president of national and international network planning, engineering and construction, said in a release that "Utilizing Emerald Networks' undersea cable system will help us to provide seamless service offerings including high-bandwidth connectivity between our Savvis data centers globally."
Savvis has been ramping up its European presence with a series of new data centers and new EMEA focused leaders.
In May, the service provider lit up a new data center in London as part of a broader initiative to add 85,000 square feet of new space across its global markets. Later in August, it named three new executives--Ian Bryant, Eric McDougal and Nick Barley--to lead its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) leadership team.
This deal with CenturyLink also has implications for Emerald as it's the third major service provider to work with the emerging submarine cable provider. It has also signed an agreement with Vodafone Iceland to provide service to the country and a Landing Party Agreement (LPA) with AT&T (NYSE: T) at the former TAT12/13 cable station in Shirley, NY.
For more:
- see the release
Download our new eBook: Converging the Optical Core to IP
Related articles:
CenturyLink, CWA reach accord on 4-year labor contract
CenturyLink deepens Telstra Global's U.S. reach via NNI arrangement
USTelecom taps CenturyLink's Steve Davis as its new board chairman
CenturyLink extends 100G connection to its first business customer