According to CNBC, Amazon is building its first wholly-owned subsea fiber-optic cable called Fastnet, connecting Maryland’s Eastern shore to County Cork, Ireland. The cable will have a capacity exceeding 320 terabits per second, which Amazon says is equivalent to streaming 12.5 million HD movies simultaneously. While Amazon has previously invested in subsea cables like Jako, Bifrost and Havfrue through consortiums, this marks the company’s first solo project. Matt Rehder, Amazon Web Services vice president of core networking, emphasized that subsea cables are essential for international connectivity compared to satellite alternatives. The company expects Fastnet to be operational by 2028 and is building it specifically to meet rising demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and edge applications.
Why Amazon‘s going solo now
Here’s the thing about subsea cables – they’re basically the internet’s circulatory system, carrying over 95% of international data. But until now, Amazon has always played nice with others in consortium arrangements. Going solo with Fastnet changes everything. It gives Amazon complete control over capacity allocation, routing decisions, and maintenance schedules. No more committee meetings or negotiating with partners about upgrades. When you own the entire pipe, you can optimize it specifically for AWS traffic patterns and customer needs. And with AI workloads exploding, that control becomes incredibly valuable.
<h2 id="cloud-wars-escalate”>The cloud wars escalate underwater
This move puts Amazon squarely in competition with Google, Meta, and Microsoft, who’ve all been building their own subsea infrastructure for years. Google famously has about a dozen cables either operational or in development. Microsoft has been equally aggressive. Now Amazon is playing catch-up in a big way. But here’s what’s interesting – while these cables technically strengthen the entire internet, they’re really about locking in cloud dominance. When you own the fastest, most reliable transatlantic pathway, guess which cloud provider enterprise customers will choose for their global applications? It’s not exactly subtle.
The resilience game changes
Remember when a single cable cut could take down half the internet? Owning private cables gives Amazon way more redundancy options. They can route around problems faster, maintain service levels during outages, and basically sleep better at night. Matt Rehder wasn’t kidding when he called satellite connectivity inadequate – the latency alone makes it useless for real-time applications. But here’s the real kicker: as more companies move critical infrastructure to the cloud, they’re going to demand this level of network resilience. Fastnet isn’t just about capacity – it’s about winning those big, nervous enterprise contracts that can’t afford downtime.
What this means for everyone else
For smaller cloud providers and telecom companies, this is basically another nail in the coffin. How do you compete when the big players own the physical infrastructure? You either pay them for access or get left behind. And for customers? Well, theoretically more capacity and reliability should be good news. But I worry about the internet becoming balkanized into corporate fiefdoms. When Amazon, Google, and Microsoft each control their own private global networks, does the open internet suffer? Probably. But try telling that to someone streaming 4K video across the Atlantic without buffering. The future’s fast – but it might not be as open as we’d like.
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.
Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords
but I’m not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share.
Cheers!
Hello to all, because I am truly keen of reading this web site’s post
to be updated daily. It contains nice material.
hello!,I love your writing very much! share
we keep in touch extra approximately your article on AOL?
I need an expert on this area to unravel my
problem. May be that is you! Having a look ahead to see you.
Can I simply just say what a relief to find a person that truly knows what they are discussing over the
internet. You definitely understand how to bring an issue to light
and make it important. A lot more people should check this out and understand this
side of the story. It’s surprising you’re not more popular because you most certainly
possess the gift.
What’s up everyone, it’s my first pay a visit
at this web page, and piece of writing is in fact fruitful
designed for me, keep up posting these articles or reviews.
Fastidious answer back in return of this difficulty with genuine
arguments and telling all on the topic of that.
Helpful information. Lucky me I found your website unintentionally, and I
am surprised why this coincidence didn’t took place earlier!
I bookmarked it.
Yes! Finally someone writes about horse gelatin trick.
hey there and thank you for your information – I have definitely picked up anything new from right here.
I did however expertise a few technical issues using this site, since I experienced
to reload the site lots of times previous to I could get
it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your
web host is OK? Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will very frequently
affect your placement in google and could damage your quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords.
Well I’m adding this RSS to my email and could look
out for a lot more of your respective exciting content.
Make sure you update this again very soon.
Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?
Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids. I found a sea shell and
gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed
the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but I
had to tell someone!
I have been surfing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all website owners
and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was wondering what all is required to get set up?
I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100% positive. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Hello would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using?
I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a hard time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m
looking for something unique. P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
It’s an amazing paragraph for all the internet users;
they will take advantage from it I am sure.
Superb blog you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew
of any user discussion forums that cover the same topics discussed in this article?
I’d really love to be a part of online community where I
can get suggestions from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest.
If you have any recommendations, please let
me know. Cheers!
Can you tell us more about this? I’d care to find out more details.
Awesome issues here. I am very glad to see your article.
Thanks so much and I’m taking a look ahead to contact you.
Will you kindly drop me a mail?
UpvoteRocket is the #1 automated voting service for private MMORPG servers. Climb toplist rankings on XtremeTop100, TopG, GTop100 with smart undetectable automation. Ragnarok, WoW, Mu Online & 20+ platforms supported. Pay only for delivered votes.
A person necessarily assist to make critically posts I
would state. That is the very first time I frequented your
website page and up to now? I amazed with the research you made
to make this particular submit amazing. Magnificent job!
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks!