Deep Blue Cable announced it has contracted TE SubCom to build and deploy the Deep Blue subsea cable system. The pan-Caribbean system design spans nearly 12,000km with initial landing points in 12 markets throughout the region, including the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands, with dual diverse landings in the U.S., which will include the first landing of a cable on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Speaking to Telecom Review, Deep Blue CEO Steve Scott said the Deep Blue subsea cable network will offer an initial capacity of 6 Tbps per fiber pair and is projected to be completed in Q4 of 2019. It will ensure availability, competitive pricing and capacity resilience, he said.
The Deep Blue network will benefit the region’s businesses and consumers by offering significantly higher design capacity, lower unit costs, lower latency through direct connectivity, and the ability to leverage advancements in reliability such as improved route planning and installation techniques.
Based in St. Lucia, Deep Blue cable is the developer, owner and operator of the system that will provide connectivity across the Caribbean islands and to the United States. By ensuring competitive pricing and resilience through alternative supply, Deep Blue cable will provide connectivity to international and regional telecommunications operators, regional network providers, Over-the-Top (OTT) providers, data centers, governments, and large enterprises, including financial services, and oil and gas companies.
"Deep Blue Cable has great confidence in TE SubCom and its ability to build a state-of-the-art subsea cable system that will provide long overdue advanced connectivity across the Caribbean islands and to the Americas," said Scott. "The Deep Blue cable system will play a critical role in serving developing Caribbean countries that are now experiencing a surge in demand for advanced telecom services and currently rely on fibre-optic connectivity that is technologically and economically disadvantaged."
The Deep Blue cable system will be a network providing direct fibre connectivity between major traffic hubs, as well as optical add/drop connectivity to many smaller markets throughout the region. Using TE SubCom’s proven OADM (optical add/drop multiplexer) branching unit technology, Deep Blue Cable can cost-effectively supply international bandwidth across a range of Caribbean markets, large and small, in a scalable manner over time.
"TE SubCom is pleased to be entrusted by Deep Blue Cable with the construction of their fibre-optic subsea cable system, which will expand and enhance connectivity across the Caribbean region and to the Americas," said Mike Rieger, vice president of sales at TE SubCom. "In a region that has experienced no significant fibre-optic deployment in recent years, this submarine cable will satisfy not only the current spike in demand for connectivity in developing Caribbean countries, but also future requirements driven by projected growth."