Yellow / AC-2
Active6,400 km submarine cable system, ready for service }}.
Key facts
- Status
- Active
- Ready for service
- }}
- Length
- 6,400 km
- Design capacity
- 640 Gbit/s
- Owner
- Lumen
Landing points
- Bellport / Brookhaven, New York, Bellport / Brookhaven
- Bude, Cornwall }}, Bude
Overview
Yellow / AC-2 is a transatlantic submarine cable system spanning approximately 6,400 km between the eastern seaboard of the United States and the southwest tip of England. Its two landing points — Bellport/Brookhaven on Long Island in New York State, and Bude in Cornwall — place it squarely within the corridor that has anchored transatlantic communications infrastructure for generations.
Route and Connectivity
The Bellport/Brookhaven landing on Long Island gives the cable access to the dense onward network serving the New York metropolitan area, one of the world's foremost financial and internet exchange hubs. At the eastern end, Bude has long served as a preferred landing point for cables crossing the North Atlantic, offering practical access to UK and wider European networks via Cornwall's established cable infrastructure. Together, these terminations make Yellow / AC-2 well positioned to carry high-volume traffic between North American and European networks.
Capacity and Design
The system carries a design capacity of 640 Gbit/s. While substantial at the time such systems were engineered, that figure reflects the technology generations that preceded the era of multi-terabit open cable architectures. The cable remains active, continuing to contribute to transatlantic capacity.
Ownership and Construction
Yellow / AC-2 is owned by Lumen, the US-headquartered telecommunications and network services company. Construction details are not documented in available records. Sole ownership by a single carrier places it among the privately held systems that carriers have historically used to secure dedicated international capacity outside consortium arrangements.
Regional Context
The North Atlantic is the most heavily cabled oceanic corridor on the planet, and Yellow / AC-2 occupies a well-worn path within it. Lumen's control of the full system capacity gives the operator direct management of a strategic transatlantic link, complementing whatever broader portfolio of leased and owned international capacity the company maintains.