NJFX Utility Service LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of NJFX, has successful acquired key infrastructure assets from SubCom LLC, originally developed in 2001. This acquisition comprises bore pipes and conduits situated in Manasquan and Avon, New Jersey. This offers purpose built underground access to the NJFX Wall CLS Campus. These critical infrastructure assets required maintenance, which involves use of complicated and scarce marine expertise.
Starting in September 2023, NJFX engaged with several marine contractors providing necessary maintenance to these assets, to prepare them for another 25 years, which is the useful life of a subsea cable. This included proofing bore pipes with divers that have underwater welding capabilities. The number one priority is always life safety which makes this an expensive maintenance exercise in preserving US Critical Infrastructure.
Ryan Imkemeier, the CLS Manager at NJFX, highlighted the collaboration's depth with HDD and MCC (Marine Contractors and Consultants) to ensure seamless operations, he stated, "We've worked closely with our contractor to ensure there are no hiccups. Delays can become costly, and it's our priority to prepare thoroughly to avoid any potential issues."
NJFX supports AquaComms who lands in one of the four acquired bore pipes for with its Havfrue/AEC-2 cable, connecting the US to Denmark, Norway, and Ireland. Other significant customers of the NJFX Campus include Tata Communications who owns TGN 1 & 2 connecting to the United Kingdom and Seaborn Networks, which owns the Seabras-1 cable connecting Wall, NJ to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Emphasizing the investment's significance, Gil Santaliz, the CEO of NJFX said, "We have invested close to $2 million to ensure these critical assets are ready for the next 30 years of use. This not only demonstrates our commitment to maintaining robust infrastructure, but also to securing New Jersey's position in the future of transatlantic connectivity."
Currently there are over 574 active and planned submarine cables reported by TeleGeography in January of 2024. This includes fourteen transatlantic subsea cables on the east coast of the United States with seven of these cables being considered modern (these include ACE-1, Havfrue/AEC-2, Grace Hopper, Amitie, Marea, Dunant, and EXA Express) with at least 15 years of useful life supporting voice, data, and cloud connectivity. There are 870,000 miles of subsea routes globally with projects like 2Africa, Bifrost and Echo being deployed in the next coming years. These subsea systems solve for topics ranging from geopolitical concerns to economic development for countries who need to be connected and participate in the digital economy.
This acquisition of these assets strengthens NJFX's role in global communications by restoring transatlantic connectivity infrastructure.