PCCS submarine network connects to Cologix Jacksonville data center

The PCCS Consortium, which owns and operates the Pacific Carribean Cable System (PCCS) has decided to link the submarine network with Cologix's JAX 1 data center at 421 West Church Street in Jacksonville, FL. PCCS Consortium members Cable Andino (Telconet Group), Setar, and United Telecommunication Services (UTS) have established points of presence (PoPs) at the data center, which are connected to the PCCS landing station via dark fiber.

The 6000-km PCCS undersea cable system connects the Caribbean and South America to North America. It runs from Manta, Ecuador in the south to Jacksonville and is designed to offer an alternative pathway to other systems that generally connect to the U.S. in Miami (see "PCCS submarine system consortium announced").The PCCS submarine cable network will have eight landing stations: one in Jacksonville, one in Puerto Rico (San Juan), two in Panama (Maria Chiquita and Balboa), and one each in the British Virgin Islands (Tortola), Aruba (Hudishibana), Colombia (Cartagena), and Ecuador (Manta).

"We are including Jacksonville in our network design for strategic reasons, most notably that connecting into U.S. fiber networks further north reduces hurricane risk and latency," explains Carlos Pazmino Campos, Cable Andino executive and chairman of the PCCS Consortium. "Jacksonville's location and position as a deep-sea port made it a natural choice once we had determined that we wanted to create an alternative to Miami."

"Cologix operates the Meet-Me-Room in Jacksonville," adds Reginald Martes, an executive at UTS Netherlands Antilles. "Deploying our PoPs with Cologix provides us the broadest access to customers, partner networks, and dark fiber providers, all of which will be central to the success of our cable system. These are important deployments for us and we trust Cologix's operating reputation and ongoing investment in the region."

The PCCS cable is operational and passing traffic. In addition to Cable Andino, Setar, and UTS, the consortium includes Cable & Wireless Communications.

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