Network Design

AURORA submarine cable system to support bandwidth demands from North to South America

Oct. 23, 2017

Fiber Prime Telecommunications (FPT) says it has signed a turnkey agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Nokia, for the deployment of the AURORA submarine cable system. According to FPT, it will invest $310 million overall in the AURORA submarine cableproject. The subsea cable system will provide up to 15 Tbps of capacity and support growing bandwidth demands for broadband applications in North, Central, and South American countries.

Fiber Prime Telecommunications (FPT) says it has signed a turnkey agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Nokia, for the deployment of the AURORA submarine cable system. According to FPT, it will invest $310 million overall in the AURORA submarine cable project. The subsea cable system will provide up to 15 Tbps of capacity and support growing bandwidth demands for broadband applications in North, Central, and South American countries.

This region's ability to expand capacity is limited, as is its potential to manage rising demands associated with a large user base, bandwidth growth, 4G/5G networks, low-latency applications, video-on-demand (VOD), Internet of Things (IoT) and Big data, FTP says. Delivering enhanced connectivity from Sarasota, Florida to Manta, Ecuador via Panama, the AURORA submarine cable system will improve current network infrastructure in the region to support social and economic development, FPT asserts.

In August of this year, Abu Dhabi Investment Group acquired FPT, and announced plans for restructuring the company to position FPT as a worldwide undersea cable company (see "Abu Dhabi Investment Group to acquire Fiber Prime Telecommunications, plans submarine cable projects"). Deployment of the AURORA will further strengthen FPT's global position.

"We are honored to partner with Alcatel Submarine Networks to build the AURORA cable, which will put us in a leadership position in Central America and on the Pacific Coast of South America," said Luiz Fuschini, FPT's chairman and president. "AURORA represents the first of many projects we are planning in order to position FPT as one of the top 10 subsea cable system companies. We are well aware of how communications infrastructures are important for the regions and contributing to its development is one of our company's key values, following United Nations' goals."

The AURORA system is also designed to extend to Chile, and to connect to the United States while avoiding intermediate regeneration, says FTP.

The deployment will include ASN's ROADM branching unit, and the 1620 SOFTNODE, which incorporates multiple transmission formats to maximize delivered capacity and minimize cost per bit. FPT also says that ASN will be responsible for project management, system design, marine operations, and system commissioning as part of the contract.

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