Aqua Comms, the operator of Ireland’s first dedicated subsea fibre-optic network interconnecting New York, Dublin and London, has appointed two new members to its executive leadership team.

Andy Hudson has been named chief networks officer and Kevin Foley has been named chief financial officer.

Hudson, most recently, was the COO of the Bermuda Telephone Company (wholly owned by Digicel), where he held operational responsibility for network planning and engineering, service delivery, maintenance, and data centre and facility management.

Foley, prior to joining Aqua Comms, was the chief financial officer for Cable & Wireless Barbados, (Flow), a Liberty Global company. Foley was also a board member of Cable & Wireless Communications Insurance Ltd., and has held other C-suite roles at Cable & Wireless, including CFO, Cayman Islands, and Finance Director of Carrier Services.

CeltixConnect-2

Aqua Comms said it has begun to develop CeltixConnect-2 subsea cable system crossing the Irish Sea from Dublin to Manchester and connecting to the Isle of Man. CeltixConnect-2 is designed to complement the reliability of Aqua Comms’ existing Irish Sea subsea cable network, CeltixConnect-1. The new cable system, which will provide onward connectivity to New York and London through AEConnect, will utilise the most advanced fibre-optic technology to support the highest transmission capabilities, including 8QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), 16QAM and beyond. Formal survey work for CeltixConnect-2 should start in the coming quarter.

North Sea Connect

In addition to CeltixConnect-2, Aqua Comms is in preliminary stages of development on North Sea Connect, the first modern, high capacity subsea cable system crossing the North Sea from the North East UK to Denmark. Aqua Comms also has plans to expand available connectivity to AEConnect at its Point of Presence (PoP) at 1025Connect in Westbury, New York, a critical subsea cable launch point on Long Island. Additionally, it will soon increase the system’s footprint by opening service capabilities in Ashburn, Virginia, and at NJFX, a carrier-neutral colocation facility located in Wall, New Jersey, to better serve expanding and new customer requirements.

“As we embark on the development of two new subsea cable systems, CeltixConnect-2 and North Sea Connect, the diverse global telecom experience and commercial focus that both Andy Hudson and Kevin Foley possess will become an immediate asset to our strategic vision of providing next-generation, international connectivity,” comments Nigel Bayliff, CEO, Aqua Comms.