Hibernia Atlantic reportedly has been selected to deploy a new cable network for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment for Northern Ireland and the Department Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for the Republic of Ireland as part of Project Kelvin.

 

The company’s Irish network is expected to carry bandwidth directly to North America, avoiding congested routes around London and New York waterways.

 

The new cable will link cities such as Armagh, Ballymena, Belfast, Coleraine, Londonderry, Omagh, Portadown and Strabane to Europe and North America. In addition, the cable is also expected to provide links to Letterkenny, Castleblayney, Dundalk, Drogheda and Monaghan.

 

By installing a branching unit in its northern trans-Atlantic cable, Hibernia plans to connect to their existing network. This will provide two routes: one from Northern Ireland to Canada and the United States and another from Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom.

 

Company officials believe that this will create the only diverse cable system offering circuits between Europe and Ireland with a protected ring between Ireland and the United Kingdom – through London, Manchester and Southport.

 

Here’s how the project looks:

 

 

Also, the submarine cable is expected to be linked to an international carrier hotel or telehouse facility in Coleraine. Officials said that this will provide additional access to other service providers and Hibernia Atlantic’s new network points of presence.

 

Hibernia also announced that it’ll complete a cross-border build linking its existing communications network into the Northwest of Ireland. Officials said that this will reduce transAtlantic data latency and also the cost of international communications.

 

A joint $41.2 million initiative between DETI and DCENR, Project Kelvin is partly funded through the EC INTERREG IVA program.

 

“This ($41.2) million investment will, for the first time, provide Northern Ireland with a direct telecommunications link to North America and greatly improve competition in the international telecommunications market,” said Arlene Foster, minister of enterprise, trade and investment for Northern Ireland.

 

Eamon Ryan, minister for communications, energy and natural resources for Republic of Ireland, expects this project to complement the outward connections already in place making the international telecoms infrastructure more resilient.

 

“The new telecommunications infrastructure announced will facilitate unmatched communications throughout the island of Ireland and between Ireland, North America and the rest of Europe,” said Kenneth D. Peterson, Jr., chairman of the Board of Hibernia Atlantic and Columbia Ventures.

 

Bjarni Thorvardarson, chief executive officer at Hibernia Atlantic, added that this new build offers a secondary route to the south of Ireland and a low-latency protection path for the entire nation.

 

A subsidiary of Columbia Ventures, Hibernia Atlantic is a diverse trans-Atlantic submarine transport cable provider. The company offers dedicated Ethernet and optical-level service up to GigE, 10G and LanPhy wavelengths and traditional Sonet/SDH services.