Global wholesale provider Telia Carrier and Telefonica’s infrastructure subsidiary Telxius have announced an agreement for multi-terabit capacity services combining their respective networks. Under the terms of the deal, Telia Carrier's terrestrial European and North American footprint will join up with Telxius' Spanish footprint and its new 6,600km transatlantic Marea cable system, giving both firms additional network muscle, lower latency and reach. It will also create a bridge linking the US with other cable systems connecting to Northern Europe, Africa and Asia, said the partners.
In a statement, Telia Carrier described the deal as one of the largest European capacity projects in recent years and a "perfect, end-to-end fit", while Telefonica said the partnership would contribute to realising the full potential of the Marea sea cable system.
Described as the highest capacity submarine cable in the world, Marea opened for business in April last year with an initial system design capacity of 160 Tbps, rising to 200 Tbps six months later. Marea was the first subsea cable to land in Virginia Beach, also a landing point for Telxius’ Brusa cable connecting to Puerto Rico and Brazil.
Telia Carrier currently connects more than 280 PoPs with 65,000 km of fibre across Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East.
