Appointments of Andy Hudson to Chief Networks Officer and Kevin Foley to Chief Financial Officer Accompanies Plans to Develop the CeltixConnect-2 Subsea Cable
DUBLIN – May 10, 2017 – Aqua Comms DAC (“Aqua Comms”), the operator of Ireland’s first dedicated subsea fibre-optic network interconnecting New York, Dublin and London, today announces the appointment of two new members to its executive leadership team. Andy Hudson has been named Chief Networks Officer and Kevin Foley has been named Chief Financial Officer.
Mr. Hudson is a telecommunications industry veteran with over 30 years of global experience in optimising mobile, fixed and subsea operations. Most recently, he was the COO of the Bermuda Telephone Company (wholly owned by Digicel), where he held operational responsibility for network planning and engineering, service delivery, maintenance, and data centre and facility management.
Mr. Foley has a wealth of experience in the telecom industry, including previous board level and executive leadership roles with companies in the carrier, interconnect, internet, mobile, voice and TV sectors. Prior to joining Aqua Comms, he was the Chief Financial Officer for Cable & Wireless Barbados, (Flow), a Liberty Global company. Mr. Foley was also a Board Member of Cable & Wireless Communications Insurance Ltd., and has held other C-suite roles at Cable & Wireless, including CFO, Cayman Islands, and Finance Director of Carrier Services.
The new appointments to Aqua Comms’ executive leadership team follow a dynamic period of growth since America-Europe Connect (AEConnect) launched in January 2016. The transatlantic cable system is moving steadily ahead with sales on track, and the company recently conducted successful tests of new and advanced transmission technologies that when deployed will further enhance and expand its total available capacity.
Additionally, Aqua Comms has begun to develop CeltixConnect-2, a diverse, high capacity subsea cable system crossing the Irish Sea from Dublin to Manchester and connecting to the Isle of Man. CeltixConnect-2 is a resilient system designed to complement the reliability of Aqua Comms’ existing Irish Sea subsea cable network, CeltixConnect-1. The new cable system, which will provide onward connectivity to New York and London through AEConnect, will utilise the most advanced fibre-optic technology to support the highest transmission capabilities, including 8QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), 16QAM and beyond. Formal survey work for CeltixConnect-2 will commence in the coming quarter.
In addition to CeltixConnect-2, Aqua Comms is in preliminary stages of development on North Sea Connect, the first modern, high capacity subsea cable system crossing the North Sea from the North East UK to Denmark. Aqua Comms also has plans to expand available connectivity to AEConnect at its Point of Presence (PoP) at 1025Connect in Westbury, New York, a critical subsea cable launch point on Long Island. Additionally, it will soon increase the system’s footprint by opening service capabilities in Ashburn, Virginia, and at NJFX, a carrier-neutral colocation facility located in Wall, New Jersey, to better serve expanding and new customer requirements.
“As we embark on the development of two new subsea cable systems, CeltixConnect-2 and North Sea Connect, the diverse global telecom experience and commercial focus that both Andy Hudson and Kevin Foley possess will become an immediate asset to our strategic vision of providing next-generation, international connectivity,” comments Nigel Bayliff, CEO, Aqua Comms. “Aqua Comms’ focus is to facilitate a superhighway to feed the digital economy, and we are intent on expanding the available capacity on our existing subsea networks by pushing the boundaries of technology, developing new cable routes, and extending the terrestrial reach of our systems to satisfy that demand.”
To meet with the Aqua Comms team at International Telecoms Week (ITW) 2017, taking place May 14-17 in Chicago, email info@aquacomms.com. For more information about Aqua Comms, visit www.AquaComms.com or email media@aquacomms.com.
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About Aqua Comms DAC
Aqua Comms DAC is the owner and operator of the transatlantic cable AEConnect and the Irish Sea cable CeltixConnect-1, and was established with a vision to build, acquire or merge with subsea fibre-optic cable networks to provide capacity networking solutions to the global media, content providers and IT companies. To learn more about Aqua Comms and its new transatlantic subsea cable system, AEConnect, visit www.AquaComms.com.
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Aqua Comms DAC
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Ilissa Miller
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Tel: +1 866 307 2510
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