Fastnet

Overview

The Fastnet submarine cable is a transatlantic fiber-optic system currently under development, designed to connect Ireland and the United States. With landing points at Castlefreke in Ireland and Ocean City, Maryland, in the United States, the cable is expected to be ready for service (RFS) in 2028. Its total length has not been disclosed, but it will traverse the North Atlantic Ocean, one of the most critical corridors for global internet traffic. The Fastnet cable will provide a direct link between these two regions, bolstering connectivity and offering additional capacity and redundancy for existing transatlantic systems.

Submarine cables like Fastnet are essential for modern telecommunications, carrying the vast majority of international data traffic. The cable is expected to support the growing demand for high-speed, low-latency connections between Europe and North America, driven by cloud computing, streaming services, and enterprise data needs. Fastnet is owned and operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS), reflecting the company's strategic investments in global infrastructure.

Route and Landings

The Fastnet cable will connect Castlefreke, located on Ireland's southern coast, with Ocean City, Maryland, on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Castlefreke is situated in County Cork, a region with a long history of involvement in transatlantic communications. The area has hosted several submarine cable landings in the past, leveraging its geographic position as one of the closest points in Europe to North America. This makes it an ideal location for minimizing latency in transatlantic data transmission.

On the U.S. side, Ocean City, Maryland, is a prominent landing site for submarine cables due to its strategic position along the Atlantic coast. Its proximity to major metropolitan areas, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, enhances its importance as a hub for internet traffic. The cable’s route across the North Atlantic Ocean will likely avoid major undersea hazards and follow established paths used by other submarine systems, ensuring reliability and ease of maintenance.

Ownership and History

The Fastnet cable is owned and operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS), a global leader in cloud computing and data storage solutions. This marks another significant investment by AWS in submarine cable infrastructure, underscoring its commitment to providing robust and scalable connectivity for its customers. AWS’s ownership of the cable ensures that it has direct control over a critical component of its global network, enabling it to optimize performance for its cloud services.

While Fastnet is a new project with a planned RFS date of 2028, it continues a long tradition of transatlantic cable systems linking Europe and North America. The first such connection was established in 1858 with a telegraph cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. Over the decades, advancements in technology have transformed these systems from simple telegraphy to high-capacity fiber-optic networks capable of transmitting terabits of data per second. Fastnet is expected to play a vital role in meeting the ever-increasing demand for international bandwidth.

What Our Measurements Show

As the Fastnet cable is not yet operational, our monitoring has not yet captured data on its performance. However, based on the geographic and technical context of its route, it is expected to deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity between Ireland and the United States. The direct link between Castlefreke and Ocean City will likely reduce reliance on intermediary systems, improving data transfer efficiency.

Our probes of similar transatlantic systems indicate that cables in this corridor typically exhibit latency of approximately 60-70 milliseconds for round-trip communications, depending on the exact routing and technology used. Fastnet’s modern design and deployment timeline suggest it will incorporate the latest advancements in submarine cable technology, including higher fiber counts and advanced optical amplifiers, to maximize capacity and reliability. Once operational, it will provide valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of transatlantic data traffic.