Interxion’s MRS2 Marseille data centre selected as European terminus for PEACE subsea cable

PEACE’s upcoming submarine cable will offer the shortest data routes from China to Europe and Africa

A new 15,000km subsea cable system providing low latency connection from China into Europe and Africa will land at a data centre Marseille, the telco behind the route has announced.

Hong Kong’s PCCW said the upcoming PEACE cable will use Interxion’s MRS2 data centre as its gateway into Europe, locating termination and interconnection equipment on the provider’s premises instead of connecting to a dedicated landing station.

PEACE is three years in development and is set for completion in 2021. The subsea cable is capable of transmitting 16Tbps per fibre pair and aims to provide the world’s most direct and high-capacity route from Asia into Africa and Europe, also landing Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, Djibouti, Kenya and Pakistan on its journey.

Other features include an abstraction-type technology – what PEACE calls “a system within a system” – that enables parties to design their own subsystem with reconfigurable bandwidth for different points over the lifetime of the cable.

“Selecting the right data centre in Europe for the PEACE subsea cable to interconnect with is a critical component to ensure the project’s commercial success. We know that with Interxion we have made the right strategic decision,” said Sun Xiaohua, Chief Operating Officer of the PEACE Cable International Network Co. Ltd.

PEACE will park alongside 14 other subsea cables, each attracted to Marseille for its strategic location between Africa and the European continent that enables efficient data flows to the so-called FLAP markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris).

“This collaboration with PEACE and PCCW Global not only solidifies Marseille’s future as an intercontinental hub with access to state-of-the-art communication services, but also affords Interxion’s global customer base entry into new markets and the ability to connect their often geographically dispersed infrastructure in close proximity to the connected community via PlatformDIGITAL^®,” says Mike Hollands, Senior Director, Market Development at Interxion.

“The PEACE cable is well placed to meet the burgeoning exchange of data and video traffic between Europe, Africa and Asia, enabling enterprises to extend their global workflows and efficiently execute their digital transformation strategies.”