Australia based private owned internet service provider FirstPath has revealed their plans to lay submarine fiber optic cables across the Sydney Harbor. World leading fiber optic product manufacturer Prysmian supplies the high count high capacity undersea fiber optic cable to FirstPath. What is special with the current deployment is the high fiber count fiber optic cable for submarine use. Generally Submarine fiber optic cables incorporates a few number of optical fibers, typically in the range of 6 to 12.
The 312F Submarine fiber optic cable would be the highest fiber count cable that Prysmian had supplied so far for this purpose. There is a growing demand for high fiber capacity cables in the region. Also by considering the huge expense and complexity of underwater cable deployment, FirstPath needed a new underwater fiber solution. The fiber optic cable needed to be small and lightweight for easy installation but also offer the highest possible fiber density. Prysmian took the challenge to design the high count submarine cable. Their latest design combines Bendbright-XS fiber with advanced Flextube cable technology, to design dense optical fiber underwater cable.
Though challenging, the design and production of high count submarine fiber optic cable was a major milestone for Prysmian’s cable manufacturing business. Also, the deployment of such high count cable is a major step forward for FirstPath, The cable will help the company further expands their network infrastructure and will enable them to tackle the challenges of increasing fiber demand. The ability to more than double the installed fiber capacity for almost the same installation cost of the typical 312 fiber underwater cable was a very attractive offering from Prysmian.
The installation presents a first for both companies. For FirstPath this is the first underwater cable deployment and for Prysmian, this was the first highest fiber count underwater cable they designed and produced. The innovative solution from Prysmian provides 720 fibers in the same form factor as a conventional 312 fiber solution. This lowers the total cost of ownership, providing over double the fiber capacity per cable for the same installation costs. The cable was installed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, providing two separate cross-harbour links to add to FirstPath’s ever growing fiber network.
FirstPath is a privately funded tier-1 Telco which is building a fiber optic and VDSL network in Australia bringing equal opportunity services to their reseller channel. FirstPath uses new technologies – Fiber and VDSL with extensive path diversity to ensure guaranteed market leading speeds, lower latency services that are still affordable and scalable.
