Americas-II

The AMERICAS-II Cable System (AMERICAS-II) is a 8,373 km submarine cable from USA to Brazil. The AMERICAS-II cable system was ready for service in August 2000.

The Americas-II consourtium comprises:

• AT&T,
• Level 3,
• Verizon,
• Sprint,
• Cable & Wireless Communications,
• Columbus Networks,
• Embratel,
• CANTV,
• Centennial of Puerto Rico,
• Corporacion Nacional de Telecommunicaciones,
• Telecom Argentina,
• Orange,
• Portugal Telecom,
• Telecom Italia Sparkle,
• Tata Communications.

The Americas-II cable system has 9 cable landing points and terminal stations (Segment T) at:

• T9: Hollywood, Florida, United States
• T8: Miramar, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• T7: Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
• T6: Le Lamentin, Martinique
• T5: Willemstad, Curaçao
• T4: Camuri, Venezuela
• T3: Chaguaramas, Trinidad
• T2: Cayenne, French Guiana
• T1: Fortaleza, Brazil

The Americas-II cable system coomprises 13 submarine segments:

• The trunk — segments S1, S3, S5, S9, S11, S12, and S13 — consists of four fiber pairs operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength.
• The branches — segments S2, S4, S6, S7, S8, and S10 — consist of two fiber pairs operating at 2.5 Gbps per wavelength.

The AMERICAS-II cable system consists of three interconnected rings (North, South, and West Systems), each operating at 2.5Gbps per wavelength collapsed ring configurations, initially in separate collapsed ring configurations, and a dedicated link between Curacao and Venezue not operating in a collapsed ring configuration.

Each fiber pair in each of the three rings has a capacity of thirty-two 155Mbps Basic System Modules (BSM), with each BSM containing 63 Minimum Investment Units (MIUs) and equipped at the outset for a capacity of 1008 MIUs.

The North System contains four fiber pairs in a collapsed ring configuration with ten wavelengths per fiber pair resulting in a total capacity of 20,160 MIUs for operation and 20,160 MIUs for protection, the cable station at Hollywood, Florida, an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs directly interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Hollywood, Florida.

The South System capacity supports the South Ring System and the Southwest System. The South Ring System contains four fiber pairs in a collapsed ring configuration with eight wavelengths per fiber pair resulting in a total capacity of 16,128 MIUs for operation and 16,128 MIUs for protection, the cable station at Fortaleza, Brazil, an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, the Branch cable stations or an appropriate share of those cable stations, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs.

The West System contains four fiber pairs interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Puerto Rico, with only two fiber pairs initially equipped with four wavelengths each, in a bi-directional collapsed ring configuration, resulting in a total capacity of 4,032 MIUs for operation and 4,032 MIUs for protection (including the cable station at Puerto Rico), an appropriate share of the cable station at St. Croix, USVI, and the system interfaces. These four fiber pairs was initially configured as two independent bi-directional rings, each consisting of two fiber pairs directly interconnecting St. Croix, USVI and Miramar, Puerto Rico.