euNetworks Group Limited, a dark fiber provider in Western Europe backed by Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), today announced that it has completed new fiber infrastructure investments linking London, UK and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, including a new subsea cable system named Scylla, which is now in service, and terrestrial fiber for onwards connectivity.
euNetworks initiated detailed design and permitting studies for these projects in August 2019, with construction beginning in April 2020. Subsequently, euNetworks began offering subsea cable and fiber infrastructure services at the beginning of September 2021.
Subsea Cable – Scylla – euNetworks
euNetworks’ Scylla subsea cable connects Lowestoft, a town on England’s North Sea coast, with IJmuiden, a city on the Netherlands’ North Sea coast. Specifically, the subsea cable spans 131 miles (211 kilometers), between each cable landing station, and has 96 fiber pairs of capacity.
Notably, Scylla is the first subsea cable system between the UK and the Netherlands to go live since 1999.
Challenges
Traditionally, the North Sea has been a difficult environment for subsea cables. Indeed, a combination of high tidal currents, a mobile sandy seabed, and intense fishing, have regularly caused subsea cable cuts and corresponding service outages.
However, euNetworks deployed the Scylla subsea cable with an approach to mitigate the challenges of operating in the North Sea. For example, Scylla’s path used ‘micro-routing’ during the cable lay process, and the cable has a deeper point of burial.
Scylla is buried 6.5 to 10-feet (2 to 3-meters) deep and in a narrow trench for the cable to lay in. In comparison, similar subsea cables have typical burial depths of only 2.3 feet (0.7 meters). In turn, the Scylla subsea cable inherently has better protection against strikes.
Terrestrial Fiber – euNetworks
From the coasts of England and the Netherlands, euNetworks’ terrestrial fiber provides onwards connectivity to major cities in the respective countries. Particularly, connections to London and Amsterdam are as follows:
- London: from Lowestoft, euNetworks’ terrestrial fiber connects onwards to London, which is 130+ miles (210+ kilometers) away
- Amsterdam: from IJmuiden, euNetworks’ terrestrial fiber connects onwards to Amsterdam, which is 15+ miles (25+ kilometers) away
Overall, these long-haul terrestrial fiber routes ultimately link into euNetworks’ metro networks in Dublin, Manchester, London, and Amsterdam. As a result, end-to-end data center-to-data center connectivity between all of these metros is possible via fiber that euNetworks owns and operates.
euNetworks – Overview
euNetworks owns 21.6k fiber route miles (34.7k fiber route kilometers) throughout Western Europe. Specifically, this fiber network comprises:
- Metro (Intra-City): 1.8k fiber route miles (2.9k fiber route kilometers)
- Long-Haul (Inter-City): 19.8k fiber route miles (31.8k fiber route kilometers)
euNetworks owns and operates 17 fiber-based metropolitan networks across Western Europe, which are interconnected by the company’s long-haul network. Additionally, in terms of data center connectivity, the company’s fiber network directly connects to 450+ different facilities in Europe.
