AC-1
Active14,000 km submarine cable system, ready for service }}.
Key facts
- Status
- Active
- Ready for service
- }}
- Length
- 14,000 km
- Design capacity
- 40 Gbit/s
- Owners
- Tyco, Level 3 Communications
Landing points
- US Shirley, New York (Brookhaven Cable Stn.), US Shirley — United States
- UK Whitesand Bay, Cornwall, England (Land's End Cable Stn.), UK Whitesand Bay — United Kingdom
- Germany Westerland, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Westerland — Germany
- Netherlands Beverwijk (KPN Telecom Cable Stn.) }} — Netherlands
Overview
AC-1 is a transatlantic fibre-optic submarine cable system spanning approximately 14,000 kilometres beneath the North Atlantic. The system connects the eastern seaboard of the United States with three European landing points, threading together some of the world's most traffic-intensive telecommunications corridors.
Route and Landing Points
The cable comes ashore in the United States at Shirley, New York, landing at the Brookhaven Cable Station. From there it crosses the Atlantic to Whitesand Bay in Cornwall, England, where it terminates at the Land's End Cable Station — a site with a long history as a focal point for transatlantic connectivity. The system extends further into continental Europe, landing at Westerland on the island of Sylt in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and at Beverwijk in the Netherlands, where it connects to the KPN Telecom Cable Station.
This routing places AC-1 squarely on the primary axis between North American internet infrastructure and the major European exchange points served by both the United Kingdom and the Low Countries.
Capacity and Ownership
AC-1 carries a design capacity of 40 Gbit/s. The system is owned by Tyco and Level 3 Communications, two names closely associated with the late-1990s and early-2000s wave of transatlantic cable investment that sought to meet surging demand for international bandwidth. Build documentation for the system has not been recorded in public sources.
Regional Significance
The combination of landing points in Germany and the Netherlands gives AC-1 direct reach into continental European networks, complementing cables that terminate solely in the United Kingdom. Beverwijk in particular serves as a well-established aggregation point for traffic destined for northern and central Europe, reinforcing the strategic value of the system's routing choices.