EXA Express (formerly Hibernia Express) is a

submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...

system linking

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, and the UK. EXA Express is now owned by telecommunications provider

EXA Infrastructure EXA Infrastructure is a digital infrastructure platform and cable network connecting Europe and North America owning over 155,000 km of fibre network in 37 countries. It owns and manages extensive terrestrial and subsea fiber networks, includ ...

after their 2021 acquisition of the infrastructure assets of

GTT Communications GTT Communications, Inc. (GTT), formerly Global Telecom and Technology, is a Network as a Service (NaaS) and Security as a Service (SECaaS) provider headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. GTT operates a Tier 1 IP network and provides Internet; ...

. With a latency of 58.95ms, the cable currently provides the lowest latency fiber optic route between the NY4 data center in

Secaucus, New Jersey Secaucus ( ) is a Town (New Jersey), town in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 22,181, an increase of 5,917 (+36.4%) from the 2010 United St ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The cable was considered operational on September 15, 2015. EXA Express spans 4,600 km between its landing stations in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

;

Brean Brean is a village and civil parish between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, England. The name is derived from "Bryn"; Brythonic and Modern Welsh for a hill. It has a population of 635. Close to the village is Brean Down, a p ...

, UK; and

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

. The cable is constructed with six fiber pairs, with a design capacity for 53 Tbit/s. During the planning phases of the cable, Hibernia Networks intended to use

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

as the contractor for construction. However, due to security concerns from the potential customers, Huawei was not used and the construction contract went to TE Subcom (owned by

TE Connectivity TE Connectivity plc is an American-Irish domiciled technology company that designs and manufactures electrical and electronic components. It serves several industries, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, and energy. TE Connecti ...

References

{{Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean Transatlantic communications cables Submarine communications cables in the North Atlantic Ocean 2015 establishments in Nova Scotia 2015 establishments in England 2015 establishments in Ireland