CeltixConnect is 131km long and consists of 72 fibre pairs, doubling existing capacity between Ireland and the UK, according to Sea Fibre Networks.
The cable is claimed to be the lowest latency link between the two countries and has been deployed to meet demand from the digital and financial services industries in Ireland. Ireland’s International Financial Services Centre is set to be one of the main beneficiaries of the low latency route.
Diane Hodnett, CEO at Sea Fibre Networks, said: “CeltixConnect going live heralds a new era for communications between Ireland and the rest of the world, opening up new opportunities for government, financial institutions and businesses across the country.”
Sea Fibre Networks has partnered with Colt to extend the cable’s reach into Europe through Colt’s fibre gateway whilst allowing Colt customers access to the low latency route. As part of the deal Colt will take one fibre pair on Celtix Connect which can support up to 1 Terabyte.
According to Andy Radley, head of bandwidth and access services at Colt, the partnership forms part of the company’s long term investment in its network, with the view to sell high bandwidth internet services.
“We knew of the demand in Ireland from the online companies, but there was previously no way to fulfil that. When this new cable was announced some time ago, it became of obvious interest to us as it offers a cost effective mechanism to deliver large quantities of high bandwidth,” said Radley.
The cable laying process began in December of last year and was carried out by the Global Marine Group vessel the Cable Innovator. CeltixConnect landed in Anglsea, Wales at the start of February 2012.