Corning Cable Systems has completed ARCOS1, the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System.
NSW Submarine Cable Systems (www.nsw.com), a Corning Cable Systems company, was the consortium leader responsible for the complete turnkey solution, including the ongoing maintenance.
Corning Cable Systems manufactures optical fiber and copper communications network infrastructure solutions
The ARCOS1 network is a 9,000 km optical-ring system linking 15 countries, including the Bahamas, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, the United States and Venezuela. The complete ring began commercial operations on Dec. 25, 2001.
The system is designed to provide improvements to the telecommunication infrastructure in the Caribbean region, increasing the speed and capacity of telecommunication amongst the countries involved. The ring configuration - where each signal is sent into both directions to the addressee - provides high-speed and high capacity capabilities for voice, data and video transmissions. Ring configuration and proper cable protection offer the highest system reliability and network availability.
"The ARCOS project, completed in 18 months, establishes a record for such a complex network," says Wolfgang Giebel, managing director of NSW.
In June 2000, NSW secured the ARCOS contract as the consortium leader along with Siemens and Tyco. The first 2,000 km went into Ready for Provisional Acceptance Test use after 12 months and ring completion took place 18 months after financial closing.
"We realized the project would be an extraordinary challenge when first sketching the ring with the customer," says Ignacio Ospino, executive vice president of NSW.
