Aqua Comms Reports Progress on Their Development of the North Atlantic Loop – Irish Sea and North Sea Segments Under Survey

DUBLIN – OCTOBER 15, 2018 – Aqua Comms DAC (“Aqua Comms”), the operator of Ireland’s first dedicated subsea fibre-optic network interconnecting New York, Dublin and London, announces today its continuing development of the North Atlantic Loop. The owners of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1) and CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) are building on its vision of efficient submarine infrastructure ownership through further investment to develop a resilient dual-path network across the Atlantic between North America and Europe.

Aqua Comms has previously announced America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2) as its ownership share in HAVFRUE, a new transatlantic cable set to land at New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX) and will connect New Jersey with Ireland, Denmark and Norway.  Aqua Comms will market its portion of the latest developments under the name CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) for the new Irish Sea cable between Dublin and Blackpool, and North Sea Connect (NSC) for the North Sea cable between Newcastle and Denmark.  Combining these new subsea cable developments with existing systems owned and operated by Aqua Comms will create a resilient, ring-based infrastructure connecting the hubs of the hyperscale data centre industry in North America, Ireland, and Scandinavia as well as providing resilience for the UK.

The building of CC-2 and NSC will provide uniquely diverse, high capacity routes and ring topology between mainland Europe, the UK, Ireland and then onwards to the US. Leased and ownership services on these two new cables will be offered from all landing stations and from carrier-neutral, metro area Points of Presence (PoPs) in Dublin, Manchester, Newcastle and Esbjerg/Copenhagen, where the system will more than double modern fibre connectivity to Denmark, increasing the diversity and reliability of the Internet to the region.

The multi-million-dollar investment in the CC-2 cable will deliver enhanced resilience and capacity between Dublin and Manchester/London, and will provide open access, carrier neutral capacity to international networks for Ireland’s businesses, ISPs and telecoms operators. NSC is the first modern system providing diversity from the UK into Northern Europe avoiding London.

Survey vessels have started mobilisation for CC-2 and NSC, and within the next few weeks, detailed manufacturing plans will be confirmed with the already-selected contractor. The cables are planned to go live in late 2019.

“These are very exciting times for Aqua Comms. We are delighted to follow up on our previously announced development plans and are pleased that this real progress is now being made towards the launch of the North Atlantic Loop in late 2019,” said Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Aqua Comms.

The Aqua Comms team will be attending Capacity Europe at the end of the month, taking place in London from 23rd to 25th October. If you would like to request a meeting with the team to discuss your long- term connectivity needs across the Atlantic Ocean, email ereihill@aquacomms.com

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About Aqua Comms DAC

Aqua Comms DAC is an Irish Carriers’ Carrier specialising in building and operating submarine cable systems and supplying fibre pairs, spectrum and capacity networking solutions to the global media, content and carrier markets. It is the owner/operator of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1) and CeltixConnect-1 and continues to build on its vision of efficient submarine infrastructure ownership with membership of the HAVFRUE consortium and development of CeltixConnect-2 and North Sea Connect, bridging the Northern Atlantic between North America and Europe. To learn more about Aqua Comms and its portfolio of subsea cable systems visit www.aquacomms.com

Media Contact:

iMiller Public Relations for Aqua Comms DAC

Tel: +1 866 307 2510

aquacomms@imillerpr.com