Global IP solutions provider Global Crossing

has announced it is expanding the capacity of its Atlantic Crossing 1 (known as AC-1) undersea fiber-optic cable system between New York and Europe to meet rapidly growing demand for broadband services.

During the first half of 2009, Global Crossing will be adding 600 Gigabits per second of transport capacity to its AC-1 Northern and Southern routes, according to Global Crossing's announcement Tuesday at the Pacific Telecommunications Council conference in Hawaii. Global Crossing's AC-1 South route connects Brookhaven, New York, to the UK, and AC-1 North connects Brookhaven, New York, to Germany and the Netherlands.

"We continue to make strategic investments in network infrastructure in support of strong growth around the world," Global Crossing's chief executive officer John Legere said in a statement. "We are increasing capacity on our Atlantic Crossing undersea system to accommodate our carrier and service provider customers' requirements for IP connectivity and broadband services, such as social media and content delivery networks."

Alan Mauldin, senior analyst at communications market research firm (TeleGeography), said the demand for bandwidth across the Atlantic remains strong. "According to our estimates, total bandwidth usage on the route increased 38 percent between 2007 and 2008," Mauldin said in a statement.

Since 2006, Global Crossing has been enhancing its IP Supercore, a platform that helps enables us to scale its bandwidth to meet increasingly high demands across the many regions it serves.

Each of the Juniper T-640 routers in the company's IP Supercore is capable of terabit speeds for future expansion. Meeting Latin America's expansion in bandwidth needs, in early 2008, the company added Juniper T-640 routers to its networks in three South American cities: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In June 2008, Global Crossing added 340 Gbps of transport capacity to its Mid-Atlantic Crossing (known as MAC) undersea fiber-optic cable system to meet growing Internet Protocol and Ethernet transport demand, and to enhance connectivity between the Americas and Europe.

MAC has a current design capacity of 920 Gbps, providing 10 Gbps service as well as Synchronous Digital Hierarchy at rates up to 10 Gbps. It also connects Global Crossing's PAC, South American Crossing and AC-1 sub-sea systems to provide full connectivity between North America, Latin America and Europe. The system includes approximately 4,600 miles of fiber-optic cable and landing stations in Brookhaven; Hollywood, Florida; and St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands.

In May, Global Crossing announced plans to open a London data center to serve customers in Europe where the company intends to meet an under-served market. It also intends to accommodate better connectivity between the continents.