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EXA enters into agreement to acquire Aqua Comms
Dedicated digital infrastructure provider acquires subsea service provider Aqua Comms
EXA Infrastructure has signed binding agreements to acquire Aqua Comms as a specialist operator of transatlantic and intra-European subsea infrastructure.
Founded in 2014, the Ireland-based subsea service provider said it has established itself as being able to offer high-capacity data services, delivered simply.
The company boasts a focus on building secure, scalable and resilient networks, connecting global carriers, cloud service providers and datacentres with infrastructure that drives the digital economy forward, and also operating submarine cable systems, supplying fibre pairs, spectrum and wholesale network capacity to the global content, cloud, carrier and enterprise markets.
It is the owner/operator of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2), and is part of a consortium that owns and operates the Amitié cable system (AEC-3).
A London-based portfolio company of global infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital, EXA Infrastructure now operates over 150,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including 20 cable landing stations that provide connectivity to subsea systems for global businesses, and ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth networks for financial, gaming and broadcast services.
In addition to claiming the lowest latency link between Europe and North America through EXA Express, more than 65,000km of the network is 400G-enabled, offering further scalability and ensuring ultra-low latency and high bandwidth connectivity across continents.
Commenting on the planned transaction – which is expected to complete in approximately 12 months, subject to customary closing conditions – Jim Fagan, chief executive of EXA Infrastructure, said: “The acquisition of Aqua Comms demonstrates EXA Infrastructure’s commitment to build a modern and diverse transatlantic platform to fully serve AI, cloud and content demand, now and in the future. The combination will offer our customers more routes, more capacity and increased diversity, all on a scaled platform.”
Read more about subsea communications
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- Vodacom lands 2Africa subsea cable in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: What is described as ‘transformative’ subsea cable lands at the Vodacom facility in Gqeberha at South Africa’s Eastern Cape to provide a gateway to direct international connectivity for faster, more reliable communications.
- RETN unveils new low latency London to Paris connectivity: International network services provider uses CrossChannel subsea cable to launch new low latency network route between London and Paris with a length of 550km.
- Grace Hopper subsea cable lands in UK: First private subsea cable to the UK funded by Google intended to improve diversity and resilience of the network, underpinning consumer and enterprise products, increasing capacity and powering services.
The acquisition comes hot on the heels of the company making a series of partnerships and extensions of its core transatlantic routes in 2024, and at the end of the year, the launch of a managed fibre network service to address market demands for increased connectivity and shorter service delivery times.
The dedicated offering is driven specifically by advancements in AI, cloud computing, content transmission and big data that mean networks need to scale to meet growing demands quickly.
It is designed to provide the benefit of dark fibre and equipment ownership, including what is claimed to be the highest levels of scalability at the lowest unit economics, without incurring the associated administration, technical and operational resourcing costs of in-house delivery.
