Hi-tech cable to link US with Ireland

hellboy99

Tuesday, 6 January 2009 12:54

Tens of millions of euro are to be invested in providing cheaper and faster broadband connections between Ireland and the US.
Project Kelvin will be the first direct telecommunications link between North America and the north of Ireland.

The project is a cross-border venture which involves the laying of an undersea cable that will come ashore near Portrush, Co Antrim.
The €30m submarine cable is to be completed by March of next year by Hibernia Atlantic.
The cable will ensure direct international connectivity to the US for towns in Northern Ireland and locations including Letterkenny, Dundalk (:D) and Monaghan in the Republic.



The venture is being co-financed under the EU's Interreg scheme in a partnership involving government departments in Dublin and Belfast.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0106/broadband.html

paulm17781

I thought we already had cables to the states. Isn't that Magnet's other business?

Cabaal

Not something thats going to massively affect the average Joe in Ireland but still a good thing

crawler

Hibernia Atlantic is another Company owned by CVC (Like Magnet)

In general this is a good thing. The subsea cables already exist - what this brings is international connectivity that does NOT leave Ireland from the East coast - one of the problems for the North and North west is that everything has to be back-hauled to Dublin or Belfast (or even the South East) to leave Ireland on one of the existing routes.

Looks like the NI dry leg will use the Saturn network route, constructed for Classroom 2000 and the Irish leg will join up with ESBT.

The new construction will be mainly the wet leg to connect the existing subsea cable system to the North West dry landing station.

Interestingly, not only does it give international connectivity via the NW but also a diverse wet protected leg back to Dublin.

If nothing else this is finally a good bit of joined up thinking and an example of what could be replicated in Ireland if politics and vested interests were put aside and practical common sense were applied.

This, as already said, will not have a big impact on joe soap immediately but longer term it will bring benefits....it can have immediate benefits for Business, Government and Telcos though.

A good thing all around I think and well done.

Sponge Bob

This is the NI Govt getting state subsidised fibre to within 30 miles of every citizen and sorting International connectivity ...and throwing Letterkenny in too fair play

Map here

http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com/documents/HA_NIreland_Routes1.pdf

Another Map



The 'dry' fibre is run by an operation similar to E-Net who run the MANs here , in the north this company is called Bytel .

Incidentally I am astonished to see that they have an interconnect with a mysterious telco called "BT-Smart Telecom " , any wet legggery involved there perchance ??

see

http://www.bytel.net.uk/products/network-services/

crawler

I would think it's a typo on their web site SB

anyway - as I said - all a good thing & lots of joined up thinking....more of this needed.

"wet Legggery" - love it

Sponge Bob

I have long advocated a simple state NGN strategy of pushing state owned open access fibre to a colo within 30 miles ( 50km ) of each citizen . Nothing has been done on national fibre since the ESB finished its figure of 8 network in 2002

Of particular concern is the inactivity of Bord Gais whose 'telco ' Aurora Telecom , has not even had a website for about 3 years now , only a holding page

watty

I heard rumour that all the B. Gais pipelines have ducts for fibre but to save a bit they didn't actually fit any of the fibre announced when the pipelines originally announced.

Still I presume it could be "blown in" or whatever a lot cheaper than digging up roads. Then maybe all the MANs could have lots of backhaul.

No gas in Donegal and Sligo then?

crawler

thats mostly right Watty - still though Duct alone would be of some use - better than diggin' the bleedin' roads AGAIN!!

Some of the duct has fibre (around Dublin mainly) but also useful duct all the way down to Galway (almost)

All part of joined up thinking....the main problem in Ireland is the access network not really core or distribution.

Marlow

BT doesn't do it differently in Ireland. Just because there is a fiber map, doesn't mean that there is fiber. The ducts are there.

The fiber first gets pulled in, when somebody actually buys a fiber trunk.

The Hiberia leg via Northern Ireland certainly adds redundancy and traffic doesn't have to cross to the UK anymore, but it's not changing much for our US traffic. Hibernia Atlantic are still the ONLY ones with a direct fiber trunk to the US from Ireland.

As for access to fiber in the Republic, the issue is not only accessibility, but also that fiber across Ireland costs 2x-3x the amount of what a fiber trunk from Dublin to London, Amsterdam or Frankfurt costs (same amount of bandwidth). Any ISP operating outside of Dublin has to add that cost to their operating cost/bandwidth pricing.

Matter of fact, the ESB is more expensive than most other carriers, be they using ESB fiber or other fibers.

/Martin

watty

Is ESB more expensive than eircom?

Marlow

watty wrote: »

Is ESB more expensive than eircom?

I haven't been able to get a quote from Eircom yet I haven't tried too hard either. But pretty much everybody else, I know the pricing.

/M