{"id":121380,"date":"2025-11-04T14:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/121380\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T14:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:29:10","slug":"aws-announces-new-fastnet-transatlantic-data-cable-between-ireland-and-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/121380\/","title":{"rendered":"AWS announces new Fastnet transatlantic data cable between Ireland and US"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cable, which will be one of the highest capacity cables to date across the Atlantic, will land in West Cork in 2028 and could offer \u201cdiversity\u201d against \u201cissues\u201d affecting Irish transatlantic cables landing in Mayo and Dublin\n<\/p>\n

The new \u2018Fastnet\u2019 cable can deliver over 320 terabytes per second, enough to stream over 12 million HD movies simultaneously. It will be one of the highest capacity data cables yet built across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

The cable, which won\u2019t be operational until 2028, will make landfall in Castlefreke, near Rosscarbery in West Cork.<\/p>\n

Cork was chosen, the company said, because most other major transatlantic cables land in either Mayo or Dublin, giving the tech giant an \u201calternative pathway\u201d for critical internet traffic compared to existing infrastructure in the event of any problems or outages.<\/p>\n

AWS suffered a major outage two weeks ago, with thousands of online services, including Snapchat, Fortnite, Ticketmaster and the Irish education publisher Folens, hit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cFastnet will add vital diversity for customers by building a new data pathway with unique landing points, keeping services running even if other undersea cables encounter issues,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

The company did not refer to current geopolitical tensions over critical cables being sabotaged or cut as acts of cold war.<\/p>\n

However, AWS said that the new Fastnet infrastructure is \u201ca dedicated transatlantic cable system designed with two strategic landing points that deliver critical route diversity away from traditional cable corridors\u2026 This integration enables rapid data rerouting and multiple layers of redundancy, helping ensure uninterrupted operations for customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cork\u2019s other main transatlantic cable, the \u2018EXA Express\u2019, has around one sixth of the capacity of the new AWS cable.<\/p>\n

AWS is the biggest cloud computing provider in the world. As such, its interests in consistent high speed traffic have grown in recent years. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AWS is understood to use several other large transatlantic lines, including the Havfrue cable (108 terabits per second), which lands in Mayo\u2019s Old Head area, near Westport.<\/p>\n

The company said that it has established a \u2018community benefit fund\u2019 \u201cfor the local community\u201d around the cable\u2019s landing area in West Cork. It did not disclose the size of any funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will work directly with stakeholders to identify and support initiatives that address each community’s unique needs and priorities.\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

\u201dThese community-driven funds could support a range of local initiatives, such as sustainability and environmental programs, health and wellbeing services, Science Technology Engineering and Math (Stem) education, future workforce development, economic development and leadership training, inclusion and diversity initiatives, and programs addressing homelessness and hunger.\u201d<\/p>\n

AWS’s global infrastructure spans 38 geographic regions and 120 \u2018availability zones\u2019, with announced plans for 10 more availability zones and 3 more AWS regions, connected by over 9 million kilometres of terrestrial and subsea fibre optic cabling.<\/p>\n

This, the company says, is \u201cenough to reach from Earth to the Moon and back more than 11 times, with built-in redundancy at every layer\u201d.<\/p>\n

Separately, AWS signed a $38bn contract with OpenAI to provide data centre and cloud computing services. The deal sent Amazon\u2019s share price up by 4pc on Tuesday. Amazon\u2019s market cap has risen 14pc in two days, making the Seattle-based firm worth $2.7tn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cable, which will be one of the highest capacity cables to date across the Atlantic, will land…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,898],"class_list":{"0":"post-121380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-latest-news-ticker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}