Corning scores Baltic build

In a development that harkens back to the glory days of Global Crossing dropping fiber to the depths of the world’s oceans, two Swedish service providers are deploying Corning and Ericsson fiber in the Baltic Sea.

It is the first deployment for one of the fibers being used, Vascade L1000, which is for use in short-haul undersea networks and carries data rates of 10 Gb/s.

AB Stokab and Foco 16 AB are the two providers carrying out the 50,000 km deployment that also involves Corning’s SMF-28e and LEAF optical fiber. The link will connect Stockholm, Sweden and Ventspils, Latvia.

The buildout will be conducted in phases, with the first involving reaching the island Gotland in the Baltic Sea and adding more festoon networks. The second entails linking Gotland to Ventspils.

But the project apparently won’t stop there. FTA Sweden AB, which is one of the equity participants in Foco 16 AB, plans to extend the link through Russia to reach China, giving Northern Europe a direct connection to China.

“We are always happy to see this kind of deployment,” said a Corning spokeswoman. The project marks the first major deployment of the Vascade L1000 fiber. It’s also the largest deployment of SMF-28e cabled fiber in Europe.