"Project Express" is expected to bolster the performance of Hibernia's current Global Financial Network (shown above), which is used by hundreds of global banks and financial exchanges.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — High-bandwidth connectivity provider Hibernia Atlantic (www.hiberniaatlantic.com) has announced plans to build the lowest latency cable route from New York to London, which will give high-frequency traders latency of less than 60 milliseconds.
According to Hibernia’s Thursday announcement, its new “Project Express” will strengthen the company’s existing trans-Atlantic connection and Global Financial Network, which currently unites hundreds of global banks and financial exchanges with a single connection.
“Demand for low latency routes has grown exponentially over the past several years,” Hibernia Atlantic chief executive officer Bjarni Thorvardarson said in a statement. “Project Express will offer the lowest latency from New York to London and provide demanding customers the speed and accuracy they require.”
Further, the new cable will enable customers to reach other key financial cities and will offer lowest latency connections between Frankfurt and London and into Chicago, New York City and Toronto. Toronto, specifically, will be able to connect to London at lower than 70ms.
It was announced Wednesday that the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and Montreal’s stock exchange have become directly connected to the GFN.
According to Hibernia, Express will be the shortest route from New York to London, and feature state-of-the-art submarine network construction. It will initially be lit using 40G technology and can be upgraded to 100G technology in the future.
Express includes an entirely new, four-fiber pair, trans-Atlantic optic cable system that will tighten the Atlantic facilitating a sub-60ms New York to London Round Trip Delay. This new route, which will be the first new trans-Atlantic cable in nearly 10 years, is significantly lower latency than all other trans-Atlantic cable systems.
“The desktop study is complete, the vendor selection field has been narrowed and we’re ready to move forward with this project,” Hibernia Atlantic business development vice president Mike Saunders said in a statement. “Construction is second nature to Hibernia, having just completed another submarine cable, landing station and terrestrial network into Northern Ireland. Additionally, Hibernia owns and operates two trans-Atlantic cable systems. With our vast experience, this new venture is a natural fit for our business.”
The first phase of the new build will begin with a new cable from the County of Somerset in the UK, to Halifax in Canada, then a low latency cable will pass between Halifax and New York. The new system will also include branching units for future enhancements to latency connections in the US and continental Europe. The build is projected to be completed by the summer of 2012.
According to communications industry research firm TeleGeography (www.telegeography.com), by differentiating its trans-Atlantic bandwidth by offering very high speeds, it could free itself from “the trans-Atlantic commodity pricing prison.” TeleGeography notes that operators overbuilt at the turn of the last decade, and between 1998 and 2001 seven fiber-optic cables were laid across the Atlantic. Trans-Atlantic bandwidth prices collapsed, however, at the beginning of the 2000s, and the telecoms that didn’t fold completely, had to drop prices yet further due to bankruptcy write-offs. “By 2003, trans-Atlantic bandwidth prices were 1 percent of their original value in 1997,” noted the TeleGeography report.
There is hope, however, given that businesses are willing to pay a premium for access to the Express cable. “Financial institutions engaged in high-velocity trading are speed demons,” TeleGeography research vice president Tim Stronge said in a statement. “They claim that shaving off just a few milliseconds of connectivity between two trading locations can earn them tens of millions of dollars a year – so they’re willing to pay extra for the fastest path.”
Hibernia Atlantic owns Hibernia Media, which operates in 20 European and North American markets and represents the largest, national, state-of-the-art optical switching and Dynamic Transport Mode network.
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