Alcatel-Lucent Upgrades Transatlantic Apollo Cable to 100G

Alcatel-Lucent completed an upgrade of the Apollo undersea cable system which links the UK and France to the United States for 100G channels and over 25 Tbps of total capacity.

The Apollo system consists of two of the most advanced fiber optic cables: Apollo North connects the UK to the US, and Apollo South connects France directly to the US, collectively spanning a total of 13,000 km.

Alcatel-Lucent deployed its 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal equipment using coherent technology at 100G to provide the most efficient use of the available optical spectrum. The 1620 LM leverages Alcatel-Lucent’s advanced coherent technology, which also incorporates the latest Soft Decision Forward Error Correction (SDFEC) technology to provide highest ultimate capacity at the same time as lowest cost per bit.

Richard Elliott, Managing Director of Apollo, said: “Wholesale providers expect higher speeds, faster provisioning and reliability.  The deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G solution enables us to further meet these expectations on the largest international route in the world.  At Apollo we only provide long haul high capacity services and so getting this right is our entire focus. We are proud to work with Alcatel-Lucent and delighted with the performance of this step change in our technology.”

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