Huawei Marine Begins Manufacturing Phase of Global Financial Network Express Project

Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd. (Huawei Marine) announced the signing of a construction contract of Hibernia Atlantic’s Global Financial Network (GFN) Project Express. Huawei Marine recently completed the first phase of the project’s marine survey work and is now commencing the manufacturing of the necessary cables and wet plant for the project.

The Project Express segment of the GFN is scheduled to be ready for service during the summer of 2013. The system will involve a minimum of a 4-fibre pair repeatered submarine cable, providing connectivity between New York and London, initially using 40G technology with upgrades to 100G planned in the future.

The first phase of the system begins with laying a 4600KM cable from Brean in Somerset, United Kingdom to Halifax, Canada. This cable will then connect to Hibernia Atlantic’s current low latency cable, which runs from Halifax to the United States, passing from Lynn, near Boston, and onwards to New York. The new system will also include five branching units for future connectivity enhancements to the United States, Continental Europe, and Ireland.

Project Express will become an essential route on Hibernia Atlantic’s GFN, uniting hundreds of global banks and financial exchanges with a single connection. Built specifically for the financial community, the GFN meets demanding performance and reliability requirements. Project Express will further strengthen the GFN by reinforcing it as the fastest path across the Atlantic, providing additional fast and secure links throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

As the first transatlantic subsea cable to be built in 10 years, Project Express will offer the lowest latency route from New York to London with less than a 60 millisecond round trip, making it the fastest and most direct route connecting both major continents.

Mr. Bjarni Thorvardarson, Chief Executive Officer, Hibernia Atlantic, said: “Project Express has taken another huge leap forward in the process of deploying the fastest transatlantic connectivity available to our GFN customer base. While we have been working to advance this project through marine surveys and letter agreements, this final closure of the full agreement is a major milestone in delivering this momentous project.”

Mr. Nigel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer, Huawei Marine, said: “Project Express is an exciting one for Huawei as it allows us to utilize our advanced digital coherent transmission technology, implement our delivery and installation capabilities, and draw on our experience from a number of submarine projects, to complete this significant and technically challenging system. Once completed, we believe that the Hibernia Atlantic Express will be a huge contributor to the faster transport of critical transactions from one key financial city or exchange to the next.”