Sol

Overview

Sol is a planned transatlantic submarine cable system with a total length of 8,153 kilometers. Scheduled to be ready for service in 2027, the cable connects four landing points across four regions: Bermuda, Portugal, Spain, and the United States. It establishes a direct communication corridor between the eastern seaboard of North America and the Iberian Peninsula, with an additional branch to Bermuda in the mid-Atlantic. Sol is designed to enhance connectivity and capacity across the Atlantic Ocean, serving as a critical link between these regions.

The cable is owned by Google, continuing the company's strategy of investing in private submarine cable infrastructure to meet growing global data demands. Sol's route and landings reflect both strategic and geographic considerations, ensuring robust connectivity for both mainland and island locations.

Route and Landings

Sol's route spans the Atlantic Ocean, connecting four distinct landing points. In Bermuda, the cable lands at Annie's Bay, a location that supports the island's role as a key Atlantic hub. In Portugal, Sol makes landfall at São Miguel, part of the Azores archipelago, a mid-Atlantic region that provides a strategic branching point for transatlantic systems. The Spanish landing is located in Santander, a city on Spain's northern coast with established telecommunications infrastructure. Finally, in the United States, Sol connects to Palm Coast, Florida, a site well-positioned to link the cable to major data centers and networks along the U.S. eastern seaboard.

The route reflects a balance between serving major population centers and leveraging geographically advantageous locations. By including São Miguel, Sol provides connectivity to a relatively underserved region in the mid-Atlantic, while its landings in Bermuda and Santander enhance transatlantic links to Europe and North America.

Ownership and History

Sol is owned by Google, a company that has become a significant player in the global submarine cable industry. The cable represents part of Google's broader strategy to develop private undersea cable systems to support its cloud services, data centers, and global connectivity needs. Sol is one of several transatlantic investments by Google, furthering its commitment to improving international data infrastructure.

Construction of Sol is expected to be completed in time for its ready-for-service date in 2027. While specific details about the cable's technical specifications, such as the number of fiber pairs or design capacity, have not yet been disclosed, its substantial length and strategic landings suggest it will play a major role in transatlantic connectivity. Sol will join an extensive network of submarine cables that Google has deployed across multiple ocean basins, emphasizing the company's focus on private ownership and control of critical infrastructure.

What Our Measurements Show

Our live monitoring of Sol has identified 69 measured corridors along its route. The best recorded round-trip time (RTT) is 1 millisecond, while the average RTT across all measurements is 46 milliseconds. These figures highlight the cable's efficiency in delivering data across the Atlantic, with latency values that are competitive for a transoceanic system of its length.

Performance measurements underscore the importance of Sol's routing and design in minimizing latency. The cable's inclusion of São Miguel in the Azores provides a mid-Atlantic waypoint that can optimize traffic flow between Europe, North America, and Bermuda. By offering low-latency connectivity, Sol is expected to support a wide range of applications, including cloud services, video streaming, and other latency-sensitive operations. Once operational, Sol will contribute to the overall resilience and capacity of the transatlantic cable ecosystem.