How the Facebook submarine cable between the US and France is proceeding
What moves around the AMITIE transatlantic submarine cable. The point of Giuseppe Gagliano
The monotonous patch of barren land that runs along a provincial road near a cemetery in a small town near Bordeaux will soon play a pivotal role in the French data and intelligence landscape. This small lot number AP2 in Le Porge will house a facility that will act as an interface between the transatlantic submarine cable, nicknamed AMITIE for the American Maritime Innovant Transatlantic Interconnexion Europe, and the national network of Orange. The installer landed the cable on Le Porge beach with the help of the support ship Miniplon on 25 September.
Orange had already signed a lease of 14,000 euros per year for the land with the city council of Le Porge in 2019. It will build a small 90 square meter building on the site. Some city councilors opposed the project as it blocks the possibility of expanding the cemetery.
The 90-square-meter building might seem cramped if the DGSE installed the repeaters and listening devices that it typically installs on any submarine cables crossing French territory a priority investment for the foreign intelligence service.
In addition to being a popular destination for its naturalistic beaches just behind the Partillot dunes, Le Porge has a notable safety advantage: the city is located just 16 kilometers from Souges, the base camp of the most important tactical reconnaissance regiment. of France, the 13th Dragoon Parachute Regiment.
On the US side, the cable will arrive at the Lynn cable landing station in Massachusetts, a historic bastion of US submarine technical intelligence. During World War II, the United States Navy deployed a system to detect enemy submarines using a submerged cable placed on the sea floor. Facebook's Edge USA subsidiary holds an 80% majority stake in the AMITIE cable system, of which Microsoft, Aqua Comms and Vodafone also have a stake. The social networking giant is one of the dominant players in the market today, partnering with the US government on its stance.
The cable war is already alive and well in the Pacific as is the race to maintain control of cable data flows, and is a strategic priority for Washington. The United States will soon launch its Cable Security Fleet (CSF) in the interest of national security and to maintain a US presence in the international submarine cable market.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cavo-sottomarino-amitie-stati-uniti-francia/ on Sat, 09 Oct 2021 06:19:30 +0000.