News
Google has announced its plans to build a new open submarine cable, Firmina, from the US East Coast to Las Toninas in Argentina. The cable will have additional landing points in Brazil and Uruguay.
Firmina will be the longest cable in the world that can run entirely from a single power source at the end of the cable. This means if its other power source(s) is temporarily unavailable, service will be unaffected. Reliability and network resilience is a key priority for Google’s network and single-end power source capability is crucial for achieving this.
The cable will have 12 fibre pairs and will offer users in North and South America fast and low-latency access to Google’s products and services.
SubCom has a contract in force for the design, manufacture and deployment of Firmina.
The cable has been named after Brazilian abolitionist, Maria Firmina dos Reis, in keeping with Google’s trend of naming its cables after the world’s visionaries.
Google also announced the Echo submarine cable system earlier this year connecting the US and Singapore. Resilience was high priority for this project too, which avoids the more crowded traditional Transpacific routes to Southeast Asia.
To keep up to date with the latest updates from around the global subsea cable industry, join us for Submarine Networks EMEA 2021 in London on 1st – 3rd September. Head to the event website for more details.
