Orange, a co-invester in the ‘Amitie’ trans-Atlantic cable system, announced that the project has reached a new milestone, as the cable landed in the French coastal location of Le Porge. The operator unveiled its participation in the project at the beginning of this year. The 6,800 km cable will connect Le Porge, near the city of Bordeaux, with the Lynn landing station in Massachusetts. Commissioning is scheduled for early 2022.
In charge of the operation and maintenance of the French landing station, Orange will supply the cable system’s links on land, starting from this station towards Bordeaux, then Paris, Lyon, and other European hubs. The operator will benefit from two pairs of fibre optic cables as part of its partnership in the project, offering up to 23 Tbps of capacity each.
Orange described its latest achievement as a great example of public-private cooperation, highlighting the support of local authorities in the Gironde department. For example, the project team was able to reuse parts of existing infrastructure to minimize work. The operator also noted that the team minimised the impact on the fragile environment (beaches and forests), using a technique based on horizontal directional drilling at 20 metre under the dunes.
