ECFS Consortium picks Xtera to upgrade Caribbean subsea fiber-optic cable system

The Eastern Caribbean Fiber System (ECFS) Consortium has selected Xtera Communications Inc. to upgrade its festoon subsea cable system. The ECFS subsea fiber-optic cable system is made up of 10 segments, connecting Tortola in the British Virgin Islands to Trinidad at the south of the Caribbean arc.

The latest upgrade of ECFS will significantly improve Internet access for residents, tourists, and business customers, Xtera says. In addition, the fiber-optic network will provide a robust backbone that will enable wireless customers to communicate across islands and to the rest of the world. The participants of the ECFS consortium will be able to offer new bundled and unbundled services and are better positioned to take advantage in the growth of cloud services, the systems vendor adds.

The upgrade will use Xtera’s Nu-Wave Optima platform, a modular optical transport system designed to lower the total cost of ownership by using a common, integrated set of modules for long-haul, unrepeatered, and regional repeatered submarine applications.

“ECFS selected Xtera Communications for the upgrade not simply because of its technical expertise with high-capacity submarine systems, but because of their increased presence in the region,” said Sam Wallerson, ECFS chairman.

Since 2011, Xtera’s Nu-Wave Optima equipment has offered the possibility to mix 10G and 100G channel rates to support existing and emerging high-capacity services (see “Xtera adds 100-Gbps to Nu-Wave Optima platform”). Reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexers (ROADMs) are used in cable landing stations to avoid or minimize the number of regeneration points for island-to-island connectivity.

“Xtera is pleased to help ECFS Consortium upgrade its extensive subsea cable infrastructure throughout the Caribbean region. New capacity will be added during this upgrade by deploying our high-capacity, long-distance optical transport product, Nu-Wave Optima,” said Jon Hopper, president and CEO of Xtera. “The use of this advanced, field-proven multi-purpose platform will allow ECFS Consortium to introduce 100G services when required by their market.”

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