AMERICAS-II is a

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...

submarine communications cable that carries telecommunications between

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, the U.S. Virgin Islands,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

, Curaçao,

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

, Suriname and Guyana (both through Cayenne), and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It has been in service since August 2000 and is operated on a

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...

basis. AMERICAS-II consists of three interconnected rings (North, South, and West Systems), each operating at 2.5 gigabits per second ( Gbit/s), initially in separate collapsed ring configurations, and a dedicated link between Curaçao and

not operating in a collapsed ring configuration. Each fiber pair in each of the three systems will have a capacity of thirty-two 155

megabits per second In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...

( Mbit/s)

OC-3 Optical Carrier transmission rates are a standardized set of specifications of transmission bandwidth for digital signals that can be carried on Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) fiber optic networks. Transmission rates are defined by rate of t ...

Basic System Modules (BSM), with each BSM containing 63 Minimum Investment Units (MIUs) and equipped at the outset for a capacity of 1008 MIUs. Its initial total rate of 40 Gbit/s increased in 2009 to 160 Gbit/s and again 2010 to an unknown rate.

Landing points

# Fortaleza,

# Cayenne,

# Chaguaramas,

# Camuri,

Willemstad Willemstad ( , ; ; en, William Town, italic=yes) is the capital city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the capital of the Netherlands Antilles pr ...

, Curaçao #

Le Lamentin Le Lamentin (; gcf, label= Martinican Creole, Lanmanten; ) is a city and town, located in the French overseas department and region of Martinique. With its 62,32 km2, it is the town with the largest area of Martinique. Le Lamentin, with nea ...

Saint Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

, U.S. Virgin Islands # Miramar, San Juan,

# Hollywood,

, United States

References

External links

*
AMERICAS-II Cable Landing License
as adopted by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

.
Tyco International Ltd. - Lead Supplier in US$310 Million Americas II Supply Contract
press release from

Tyco International Tyco International plc was a security systems company incorporated in the Republic of Ireland, with operational headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, United States (Tyco International (US) Inc.). Tyco International was composed of two major b ...

April 1998
Embratel Inaugurates Americas II Cable
October 2000 {{Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean Liberty Latin America Submarine communications cables in the Caribbean Sea Submarine communications cables in the South Atlantic Ocean 2000 establishments in North America 2000 establishments in South America

Landing points

See also

References

External links