Fibre to connect France and the UK

The first next-generation subsea cable to be built across the English Channel in nearly 20 years.

Wednesday, 15th July 2020 Posted 3 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Crosslake Fibre , an international network provider and developer of unique subsea and terrestrial fibre networks, announces its newest subsea cable project, CrossChannel Fibre. The historic, next-generation 550km cable is the first fibre-optic subsea cable to be built across the English Channel in nearly twenty years and will connect Slough, United Kingdom and Paris, France. This new subsea cable is designed to support the increase in bandwidth requirements from telecoms, enterprises, content providers, as well as financial, gaming, and media companies that require high capacity, low latency connectivity. The high fibre count, non-repeatered system will contain 96 fibre pairs, each providing over 20 terabits per second of capacity throughput, and will be ready for service in the fall of 2021.

To support this project, Crosslake Fibre has engaged EGS, a leading global provider of marine surveys and services, to undertake the marine and burial surveys for the project. Crosslake Fibre has placed the marine survey contract into force and survey activities have commenced.

“We are excited to launch this historic subsea project and deliver a new, much-needed connection across the English Channel connecting the critically important data hubs of Slough and Paris. This new fibre infrastructure has been optimized to create the shortest path between the two data hubs, providing users with an enhanced technical solution and materially lowering operating costs. With the continued increase in bandwidth demand further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, subsea cables have never been more critical to the functioning of the backbone of the Internet,” comments Mike Cunningham, CEO for Crosslake Fibre. “The marine survey is an essential milestone in the development of subsea projects. That is why key partners such as EGS are important, as they have the expertise and knowledge to ensure a successful survey of the route and ultimately pave the way for an optimal deployment of the cable.”

“We are proud to be a part of this momentous subsea project that addresses Internet capacity in a very busy and congested part of the world,” states Deborah Jenkins, UK Director for EGS. “The marine survey is a critical aspect for any new cable system, and we will be conducting geophysical and geotechnical surveys that will enable an optimized route design.”

In addition, Crosslake Fibre’s capital partner, Tiger Infrastructure Partners, has invested additional capital into the Crosslake platform to support the CrossChannel Fibre system and advance the growth and development of new projects.

“Crosslake Fibre has demonstrated its expertise and ability to successfully develop and deploy infrastructure projects globally. With its CrossChannel Fibre project, the company is well-positioned to support the increasing capacity needs of high-growth regions in Europe,” states Emil Henry, CEO and Managing Partner of Tiger Infrastructure Partners. “We are excited to strengthen our long-term commitment to Crosslake Fibre and to support its future initiatives.”