The Pisces Project Moves Forward: Microsoft Buys Fibre Pair IRU

This project will deploy the first fibre optic cable to connect connect Ireland to Continental Europe. Pisces provides a unique route that sharply improves the resiliency of Ireland's connectivity to the rest of the world. The EU loves projects that bypass non-EU countries and directly ties together EU member states. As the UK is notorious for surveillance, it is particularly welcomed. Consortium members include the Irish subsea permitting firm, MDM, an equity fund appropriately named Equitix, and Orange. The cable will have 16 fiber pairs. I estimate aggregate throughput will be at least 320 Tbps.

I admire the unique routing of this system. What is not clear to me is the hyperscaler demand for its capacity. Microsoft has agreed at least in principle to take a fibre pair. There is certainly a prima facie case for Google and Amazon to take single fibre pair IRUs on the system because it will improve their own network's resiliency. However, that advantage must be balanced against recent hyperscaler investments in Irish sea cables like Beaufort. As long as hyperscalers have enough diversely routed cables linking Ireland to the UK, Pisces may look like a waste of money to some of them.

The hyperscalers dominate Irish traffic. I myself sold a 10G Atlantic wave IRU to Microsoft in 2010. Indeed, Amazon is building the Fastnet cable whose sole purpose is to connect its Irish data centers back to the US via a Maryland landing. So this project's success depends largely on hyperscaler good will and open wallets. In general, hyperscaler purchases serve to finance the projects, but the rates of return are relatively low due to their infrastructure expertise. 

Map of the New Fiber Optic Pisces Subsea Cable

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