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AWS Launches First Independent Subsea Cable Project

Amazon Web Services has embarked on a major infrastructure leap with the launch of Fastnet, its first independently built subsea cable system. Scheduled to go live in 2024, Fastnet stretches across the Atlantic, connecting Ireland to the United States and reinforcing the digital backbone that supports AWS's global cloud ecosystem.

Historically, Amazon has relied on shared consortium models or leasing agreements to access underwater fiber-optic capacity. Unlike tech counterparts such as Google and Meta—which have already invested in standalone subsea systems—AWS has until now adopted a more conservative approach to physical infrastructure ownership in the telecom domain.

Fastnet marks a shift in strategy. This is the first time AWS will fully own and operate a transoceanic telecom cable, signaling a deeper commitment to performance control, capacity scaling, and network resilience. By designing and managing its own arteries of connectivity, AWS removes reliance on third parties and gains tighter integration between its cloud services and the network layer.

So, what's driving this move? Why now? AWS’s core strategy points to growing demands for low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity between its hyperscale data centers, along with increasing pressure to deliver consistent performance, especially across mission-critical regions like Europe and North America. Fastnet doesn’t just upgrade bandwidth—it redefines how AWS scales its infrastructure at the ocean floor level.

Building the Backbone: AWS and the Global Infrastructure Shift

The Role of AWS in Cloud Computing

Amazon Web Services (AWS) operates the world’s most comprehensive and widely adopted cloud platform, serving millions of customers across 245 countries and territories. As of Q1 2024, AWS leads the global Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) market with a 31% share, according to data from Synergy Research Group. Enterprises, government agencies, and startups alike run mission-critical workloads on the AWS cloud, including banking platforms, AI applications, and global content delivery networks.

This scale generates massive network traffic daily—data that demands reliable, high-throughput infrastructure. AWS supports this demand through one of the largest and most resilient infrastructures ever deployed for cloud computing. Behind each AWS region is a complex mesh of networks designed to ensure low latency, high availability, and stringent redundancy standards.

Strategic Edge: Enhancing Data Center Connectivity

AWS operates 33 launched regions and over 105 availability zones globally, and each region connects to a matrix of infrastructure nodes, both terrestrial and undersea. These interconnections form the fabric that allows seamless, high-speed communication between core data centers around the globe. With latency-sensitive applications and data sovereignty laws shaping cloud architectures, location-specific infrastructure has become a competitive differentiator.

AWS Direct Connect, for example, enables customers to establish private, low-latency connections from on-premises systems to AWS infrastructure. But even this edge solution relies on robust transmission routes between primary regions. The more AWS controls those routes, the more control it holds over data availability, speed, and cost.

The Importance of Private Cables for AWS Service Quality

Every millisecond of latency affects user experience. Transit congestion on shared cables, disputes with telecoms, or insufficient redundancy can disrupt service. Dedicated private subsea cables eliminate these risks. They allow AWS to optimize routing for performance, build in predictable failover architecture, and decouple growth from third-party network constraints.

From Leasing to Owning: AWS Rewrites the Model

Historically, AWS relied heavily on leasing capacity from telecom companies that manage and operate subsea cables. While effective in early stages, leasing introduces limitations. AWS must negotiate terms, absorb rising leasing costs, and rely on other providers for capacity scaling and repair operations.

The Fastnet project—AWS’s first wholly-owned subsea cable—signals a definitive shift. Instead of partnering on consortium models or leasing from incumbents, AWS now deploys purpose-built infrastructure tailored to its global cloud ambitions. This move mirrors patterns seen in hyperscaler networks, where direct control over every performance layer becomes non-negotiable.

The scale and velocity of modern cloud services demand an end-to-end global backbone engineered not just to meet today’s workloads—but to anticipate tomorrow's.

Fastnet in Detail: Scope, Route, and Technical Ambitions

A Subsea Cable Designed for Hyperscale Performance

Fastnet marks Amazon Web Services’ first independent venture into subsea infrastructure. Unlike its previous reliance on consortiums, AWS holds 100% ownership and operates the entire system—end to end. This privately-operated cable underscores a shift in strategy, moving from shared bandwidth to exclusive control over capacity and routing, removing the compromises of jointly-managed systems.

An Intercontinental Route: Maryland to Ireland

Stretching across the North Atlantic, Fastnet connects the eastern seaboard of the United States with Europe’s western edge. Specifically, the cable runs from a landing point in Connecticut Avenue, Myrtle Hill, Maryland, USA to Old Head of Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. This transatlantic link supports AWS’s intention to scale bandwidth availability for its European and North American regions with greater efficiency and lower latency.

Technical Specifications: Fiber Pairing and Bandwidth Capacity

The cable features 16 fiber pairs, built on next-gen optical technology. Each fiber pair offers a theoretical throughput exceeding 20 Tbps, bringing the total system potential to over 320 Tbps.

This configuration aligns with the rising demand for hyperscale cloud applications, particularly those requiring uninterrupted, high-throughput data transfers—machine learning models, big data storage replication, and real-time streaming among them. The system integrates advanced repeaters and dynamic equalization technologies to maintain signal integrity across its 6,000+ km stretch.

Sole Ownership by AWS: Independence in Every Byte

Fastnet isn’t just a new cable—it represents a full pivot in how AWS thinks about connectivity. By handling the design, construction, and future operations internally, Amazon ensures that traffic flows across a network purpose-built for its cloud business. No third-party leasing. No shared traffic contention. And no delays due to external governance.

Timeline: Development Milestones and Deployment Outlook

AWS initiated development of Fastnet in 2022, with physical undersea construction moving forward in 2023. The cable is expected to reach its ready-for-service (RFS) milestone by late 2024. While Amazon has not publicly disclosed collaboration with traditional telecom consortia, select engineering and marine contractors—primarily European firms—are expected to play logistical and technical roles under AWS direction.

A Shift in Direction: AWS’s Strategy Behind Going Solo with Fastnet

Departing from the Consortium Model

Until now, Amazon Web Services has joined forces with other tech giants when investing in subsea cables. MAREA, for instance, is a high-capacity cable project jointly developed by Microsoft, Meta, and Telxius. Hibernia Express, another transatlantic system, has served as shared infrastructure for various stakeholders. In both these cases, AWS operated as part of a consortium, cooperating on capacity sharing and routing rights.

Fastnet breaks this pattern. Amazon is financing and managing this cable independently—owning 100% of the fibre pairs and controlling all associated landing station infrastructure. This pivot signals a clearly defined strategic intention: full autonomy over a critical piece of transatlantic infrastructure.

Latency and Redundancy, Under Full Control

Owning Fastnet gives AWS the ability to optimize for two performance metrics that directly affect its cloud customers: network latency and redundancy. By dictating routing paths without needing to coordinate with partners, AWS can sharply reduce milliseconds in packet travel time—delivering a faster, more predictable user experience.

What happens when routing must shift due to outages or congestion? Full ownership eliminates delays in negotiations or capacity exchange between multiple parties. Amazon can now pivot traffic in real time across its own channels, reinforcing end-to-end resilience without compromise.

Precise Routing for Cloud Efficiency

Unlike shared networks, where traffic flow depends on joint agreements, Fastnet enables Amazon to channel data through paths fine-tuned for AWS cloud workloads. Whether supporting data replication between data centers or optimizing content delivery for latency-sensitive services like gaming or real-time analytics, this proprietary pipeline gives AWS full command of traffic engineering. The result: tighter network integration, reduced operational cost, and seamless service delivery across the Atlantic.

Reducing Third-Party Dependency for Strategic Advantage

Every shift away from shared infrastructure strips away a layer of dependency. Fastnet reflects a wider AWS mission to reduce reliance on carriers, interconnection providers, and telecommunications consortia. Running its own cable grants AWS the leverage to dictate the technology stack that runs on top of the global backbone—from modulation formats to network automation standards.

In a competitive environment where milliseconds matter and every traffic hop introduces potential risk or performance drop, AWS's decision signals long-term positioning. Fastnet isn’t just about bandwidth—it’s about who commands the infrastructure at scale and on whose terms the cloud moves across oceans.

Infrastructure at the Edge of Innovation

Subsea Cable Infrastructure as a Backbone of Cloud Ecosystems

Subsea cables carry 99% of international internet traffic, according to the International Cable Protection Committee. These systems form the physical foundation of the global cloud, linking data centers across continents with low-latency, high-capacity connections. Amazon’s Fastnet, spanning the Atlantic from the U.S. to Ireland, exemplifies this backbone function—reducing dependence on shared consortium networks and scaling its network to match customer demand.

Subsea infrastructure doesn't merely serve as long-haul connectivity. It directly influences the performance of compute-intensive workloads, replication of databases, and delivery of content for applications running on AWS. The strategic ownership of Fastnet grants AWS exclusive control over routing, capacity management, and service-level optimization.

Hyperscalers Shaping the Private Internet

Public internet infrastructure is no longer sufficient for global-scale cloud operations. Hyperscalers like AWS are driving the construction of a parallel private internet, engineered for resilience, throughput, and enterprise workloads. By investing in proprietary cables such as Fastnet, AWS secures uncontested bandwidth and enhances control over data-routing policies, minimizing reliance on third-party operators.

Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon account for nearly two-thirds of submarine cable investment between 2016 and 2023, according to research by TeleGeography. This trend shows that hyperscalers aren't merely tenants of the internet; they are increasingly its primary architects.

Edge Strategy: Closing the Loop Between Cable Landings and Compute

AWS doesn’t just land cables—it integrates them tightly with edge computing and regional data center design. Cable landing stations are positioned within high-bandwidth proximity of AWS Availability Zones, supporting deployments like Amazon CloudFront, AWS Outposts, and Local Zones.

This proximity allows AWS to execute compute tasks closer to end users and synchronize data across regions in real-time. By embedding subsea connectivity into the edge-cloud continuum, AWS enhances service responsiveness while streamlining backend infrastructure operations. The process involves marrying physical data movement with virtual network orchestration.

Accelerated Growth in Europe and North America

Fastnet terminates in County Mayo, Ireland, and the eastern seaboard of the United States. These two regions host some of AWS’s most active and rapidly expanding infrastructure footprints. Ireland, home to EU Non-compliant and Compliant AWS Regions, serves as a geopolitical and latency-optimized hub for connecting mainland Europe to North America.

Meanwhile, Maryland provides geographic redundancy for AWS’s U.S. East operations beyond Northern Virginia, cushioning the workload traffic from population-heavy metros such as New York, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. Fastnet boosts inter-regional failover capabilities and paves the way for new Availability Zones in the future.

Competitive Pressure Beneath the Surface: The Tech Industry and the Subsea Cable Race

Big Tech’s Deepening Investments in Submarine Infrastructure

The global submarine cable ecosystem has become a high-stakes platform for tech giants, each seeking dominance in cloud infrastructure. Over the past decade, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have transitioned from partial stakeholders in joint cable ventures to leading solo cable builders. Their motivation? Direct control over latency, bandwidth scalability, and routes tailored to meet data-intensive workloads.

This aggressive cable race reflects a pivot in strategy: no longer content with leasing bandwidth, hyperscale cloud providers are seizing control of the core infrastructure underpinning the internet.

Fastnet: Amazon Web Services Enters the Arena

AWS, for years a conservative player in cable infrastructure projects, lacked a solo-operated route. With Fastnet, that changes. By launching its first independent subsea cable, AWS directly challenges its peers’ pace and presence beneath the oceans. The Fastnet system, designed to span from the US Eastern Seaboard to Western Europe, marks AWS’s shift from reliance on consortia to ownership-driven connectivity architecture.

This move effectively closes a strategic gap. It grants AWS similar levers of operational performance, enabling it to independently route traffic, achieve lower latency, and manage resilience at the physical layer—all critical for supporting AI training workloads, high-throughput data exchange, and time-sensitive financial applications.

Connectivity Now Defines Cloud Differentiation

The battleground for cloud providers has evolved. Compute power, storage pricing, and availability zones still matter, but direct physical control over data transmission paths now acts as a key differentiator. Latency consistency, route diversity, and control over maintenance cycles influence how enterprise clients assess cloud maturity.

Fastnet equips AWS to deliver service guarantees aligned with premium-tier requirements, particularly in financial services, genomics, autonomous systems, and real-time analytics. These sectors demand milliseconds shaved from routes and minimal packet loss in transatlantic data streams.

Market Impact: Toward Faster, More Resilient Cloud Services

The entry of AWS into the solo subsea cable market introduces additional path diversity across the Atlantic, traditionally one of the most traffic-saturated corridors. More cables mean alternate routing during outages, reduced congestion, and dynamic traffic balancing. As each cloud provider builds and controls its own cable systems, the result is a more competitive, resilient global internet fabric.

This shift also accelerates the decoupling of internet infrastructure from telecom-dominated consortia. In the long run, hyperscalers owning and operating cable networks will exert greater influence over global data flows—a transformation reshaping who controls the internet’s core arteries.

Bridging Continents: Maryland – Ireland Connectivity

Maryland: Strategic East Coast Landing Center

The U.S. East Coast offers multiple advantages for subsea connectivity, and AWS has selected Maryland as the American endpoint for the Fastnet cable system. Positioned near major population hubs and key federal infrastructure, Maryland provides a secure and resilient environment for hyperscale network operations. Its proximity to Washington D.C. adds a geopolitical edge, establishing reliable interconnection with government systems and enterprise networks.

Historically, the state has played a supporting role in transatlantic communication. By anchoring Fastnet in Maryland, AWS enhances regional network latency, expands bandwidth capacity, and optimizes connection speed for its massive data flows to and from North American clients.

Ireland: Gateway to European Network Infrastructure and Data Centers

On the opposite side of the Atlantic, Ireland serves as Europe’s digital gateway. With major tech firms concentrated around Dublin and the eastern corridor, the country has become a hotspot for hosting and distributing European cloud data. Fastnet’s landfall in Ireland consolidates this position, strengthening AWS’s foothold in a jurisdiction renowned for its sophisticated data center ecosystem and pro-digital policies.

Ireland operates as a linchpin within Europe’s high-capacity fiber optic routes, linking the UK, continental Europe, and Nordic countries. Connection to Fastnet will not only enhance resilience of cross-border data movement, but also allow AWS to scale services into increasingly data-hungry sectors, from AI model operations to IoT platforms.

The Importance of Ireland in AWS’s European Operations

AWS established its first European region in Ireland back in 2007. Since then, the company has launched multiple Availability Zones across the country, investing heavily in local infrastructure. According to AWS, over €6.2 billion was committed to Ireland between 2012 and 2022, with an estimated €2.4 billion impact on the national GDP by the end of the decade.

Fastnet reinforces this trajectory. By enabling direct, dedicated connectivity between the U.S. and Ireland, AWS sharpens data security, reinforces uptime reliability, and ensures lower latency compared to shared public internet backbones. This level of operational control positions Ireland not merely as a hosting location, but as a central command node in AWS’s European cloud architecture.

Support for Digital Transformation Across the Atlantic

Fastnet directly supports the modernization of industries that depend on instantaneous data exchange across the Atlantic. Private business networks, financial institutions, and health research collaborations all require sub-100-millisecond latency and high-throughput links to the U.S. AWS’s own tools — including Amazon S3, EC2, and AI/ML services — will benefit from this dedicated pathway.

For transatlantic customers undergoing digital transformation, Fastnet delivers more than speed. It assures deterministic routing, higher fault tolerance, and the ability to sustain exponential data growth in cloud-native environments. By reducing reliance on shared or consortium-operated links, enterprises gain consistent bandwidth availability and predictable cloud economics.

Redrawing the Map of Digital Traffic: Fastnet’s Global Data Impact

Rerouting the Flow: Accelerated International Data Movement

Fastnet, Amazon’s first independently owned subsea cable, directly links the east coast of the United States to the west coast of Ireland, a route increasingly central to transatlantic digital infrastructure. By operating its own subsea network, Amazon Web Services gains control over significant data routes, reducing the dependency on shared consortia models and creating alternate high-capacity paths for traffic crossing the Atlantic. This bypasses congested junctions found in older cables and offers a redirect path during disruptions, boosting overall resilience of international data exchange.

Alleviating Data Congestion for AWS-dependent Services

Traffic bottlenecks have long plagued hyperscale cloud services experiencing exponential expansion. With Fastnet integrated into AWS’s global backbone, services built on the AWS platform—ranging from video streaming and game hosting to enterprise SaaS workflows—can sidestep third-party traffic constraints. This reduces delays during peak usage hours and stabilizes throughput performance for platforms whose traffic relies heavily on AWS infrastructure.

Rapid Cross-Regional Cloud Expansion

The availability of a dedicated transatlantic route strengthens AWS’s ability to scale out regional services. For example, when applications hosted in North American availability zones require fast replication to European zones for compliance or disaster recovery, Fastnet reduces synchronization time. Organizations seeking geographic redundancy between U.S. and EU data centers benefit from this infrastructure, enabling precise control of data locality and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR.

Noticeable Improvements in Application Response Times

Fastnet shortens the path that data must travel between regions, improving user-perceived performance. Applications with globally distributed user bases—such as SaaS platforms, realtime analytics engines, and multiplayer gaming environments—will experience sharper responsiveness. This change affects not only backend data handling but also client-facing interfaces, reducing lag during transactions, video calls, and remote desktop sessions.

Reducing Latency Across Atlantic Hubs

The new Maryland-to-Ireland route directly impacts round-trip traffic latency between key AWS regions in North America (like US-East in Northern Virginia) and Europe (such as EU-West in Dublin). With fiber-optic signal propagation generally traveling at about two-thirds the speed of light in fiber (approximately 200,000 km/s), the trimmed route can shave multiple milliseconds off typical transatlantic latency values. In measurable terms, application response latency between these AWS regions will drop from averages around 65ms to low-50ms, offering a tangible edge for latency-sensitive applications.

Redefining Scale: Capital Deployment Behind Fastnet

Massive Capital Outlay to Anchor AWS’s Network Sovereignty

Amazon Web Services is financing Fastnet with an estimated capital investment approaching $350 million, according to industry analysts and financial disclosures related to similar infrastructure assets. The project reflects a strategic financial decision to internalize a core aspect of AWS's global network—subsea transport—without relying on consortia-led cable investments. This scale of spending aligns with trends seen in hyperscale infrastructure, where owning physical assets yields stronger control over routing, latency, and long-term costs.

Controlling Infrastructure, Cutting Costs

Building rather than leasing network capacity changes AWS’s economic model. Over the span of two decades—typical for submarine cable amortization—ownership can eliminate recurring bandwidth lease payments, which often run into millions annually. Analysts at TeleGeography note that dark fiber IRUs (Indefeasible Rights of Use) cost between $10 million to $50 million per transatlantic pair over a 20-year lease. By owning Fastnet, AWS contains future expenses, stabilizes operational costs, and insulates itself from third-party pricing fluctuations.

Downstream Effects on Pricing and Availability

Fastnet directly feeds AWS’s transatlantic backbone, enabling more predictable traffic engineering and capacity planning. That efficiency impacts cloud product pricing: controlling the full travel path of data reduces transit dependency, which, in turn, strengthens AWS’s ability to offer consistent rates for regional data transfer. Expect expanded service nodes across Europe and the U.S. East Coast, with measurable improvements in availability zones’ latency performance—especially in data-heavy workloads such as AI/ML and real-time analytics.

Economic Contributions in Landing Zones

Beyond quantifiable jobs, expanded connectivity often catalyzes broader ecosystem development, including new data center projects, colocation investments, and academic cooperation in fields like underwater networking and oceanographic research.

Charting the Course Ahead: AWS’s Hyperscaler Strategy and Beyond

Fastnet: A Prototype for Future Infrastructure Models

Fastnet marks more than a milestone—it's a scalable blueprint. By owning its first dedicated subsea route, AWS sidesteps joint-venture limitations and sets precedent for full-stack infrastructure autonomy. This approach streamlines deployment, reduces dependency on consortia negotiations, and enables tailored optimizations for Amazon Web Services' performance objectives. Future cables built on this model will carry Amazon’s signature at every kilometer, with custom engineering aligned to AWS's cloud and edge architecture strategies.

AWS’s Private Network: From Patchwork to Ecosystem

Amazon’s core network already spans hundreds of thousands of route-miles in fiber, but reliance on third-party subsea bandwidth has dilated control. Fastnet represents a pivot—toward a fully integrated, global private network. The goal is seamless routing from user request to data fulfillment, over layers AWS owns or governs directly. Progressively integrating subsea capacity into this mix tightens the fabric. Each new link transforms that network from a patchwork into a high-performance ecosystem.

New Routes on the Horizon: Asia, Africa, South America

With connectivity from North America to Europe now privately provisioned, strategic logic drives expansion elsewhere. Hyperscale demand in Southeast Asia, fast-growing African tech hubs, and Latin America's digital acceleration all strengthen the case for full-stack cables beyond the transatlantic corridor. AWS’s current infrastructure map shows clear whitespace—regions under-connected or bottlenecked by shared cables. Targeted subsea projects could unlock more endpoints for Amazon’s in-region data centers and edge locations.

Private Cables and the New Economics of Cloud Delivery

Demand for cloud capacity has outpaced traditional telecom-driven investment timelines. Public providers rarely provision bandwidth at hyperscaler scale or cadence. Private cables resolve this mismatch. They deliver bandwidth in bulk, reduce per-terabit costs, and deliver deterministic performance levels across AWS's multi-region architecture. Fastnet’s 400 Tbps design sets a new threshold—one that can accommodate next-gen workloads like AI training clusters, low-latency gaming, and real-time analytics at global scale.

Powering public cloud reach with private infrastructure accelerates AWS’s evolution from service provider to network operator. Each new subsea route doesn’t just extend connectivity—it deepens control across the physical layer, enabling tighter integration with availability zones, wavelength services, and localized resilience strategies.

Fastnet’s Ripple Effect on the Cloud Industry

Amazon’s investment in Fastnet marks a turning point in hyperscale infrastructure. By launching its first solo subsea cable, AWS unambiguously signals a shift away from traditional shared models toward full-stack, private global networking. It’s not just about better connectivity—it’s about owning the performance pipeline from data centers to oceans.

Fastnet aligns with a broader trend: hyperscalers deepening control over their physical networks. By eliminating reliance on consortia or third-party carriers, Amazon removes variables that compromise latency, throughput, and network resiliency. The result? Lower jitter, faster throughput, and faster fail-over in the event of disruptions. In hyperscale environments, those microseconds translate to competitive advantage.

More than a performance play, Fastnet is an assertion of presence. Building a dedicated route between Maryland and Ireland locks down strategic transatlantic capacity—data corridors that underpin $$trillions$$ in global digital commerce. Enterprises running on AWS will benefit from enhanced data flow between North America and Europe, where constant regulatory, AI, and fintech workloads demand transcontinental scale.

Meanwhile, competitors in the cloud space—from Google and Microsoft to Oracle—are either re-assessing their own subsea stakes or copying the direct-ownership strategy. Subsea fiber is no longer just plumbing. It’s become an active force in determining cloud platform maturity. Private subsea infrastructure is no longer optional in the race to dominate cloud services across geographies.

Fastnet folds seamlessly into AWS's global infrastructure narrative: in-region availability zones, low-latency edge locations, hyperscaler-owned cable systems. The connective tissue is now physical, not metaphorical. Performance optimization now begins at the seabed, not just at the server rack.

Ask this: How long before a full mesh of privately-owned hyperscaler cables becomes the baseline, not the differentiator?