Columbus III

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Columbus-III cable landing points in: 1) Hollywood, Florida, United States; 2) Ponta Delgada, Azores Islands, Portugal; 3) Carcavelos e Parede, Portugal; 4) Conil de la Frontera, Spain; 5) Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, Italy COLUMBUS-III-route.png
Columbus-III cable landing points in: 1) Hollywood, Florida, United States; 2) Ponta Delgada, Azores Islands, Portugal; 3) Carcavelos e Parede, Portugal; 4) Conil de la Frontera, Spain; 5) Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, Italy

Columbus-III was a transatlantic telecommunications cable connecting Europe to North America.

Contents

History and details

Columbus-III entered service since December 1999 [1] [2] [3] and it's owned by over 30 carriers. Supported by 90 repeaters, it's 9833 km long.

After a 2009 upgrade, the capacity of the system between the United States and Portugal was increased from the original design capacity of 8 x 2.5 Gbit/s to 160 Gbit/s initially. The upgraded system could accommodate up to 320 Gbit/s with potential to go even further beyond. [1] [2] [3]

The cable was decommissioned in December 2020. [4]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Columbus III and Xtera Communications sign contract to upgrade subsea cable network". Lightwave Online. October 29, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  2. 1 2 "Columbus III Consortium and Xtera Communications Sign Contract to Upgrade Transatlantic Submarine Cable Network Using Xtera's NXT System" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 18, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Columbus III Consortium and Xtera Communications Sign Contract to Upgrade Transatlantic Submarine Cable Network Using Xtera's NXT System". Market Wired . October 29, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  4. "2022 Circuit Capacity Data For U.S.-International Submarine Cables" (PDF). Retrieved March 15, 2024.