DLA Piper has advised Hibernia Networks, a leading provider of high speed global telecommunications services, on the development of the new Hibernia Express submarine cable system.

The first of its kind, the 4,600 km cable will provide the lowest-latency fibre-optic path between New York and London, connecting Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Brean, England and Cork, Ireland. Hibernia Express utilizes a 6-fiber-pair submarine cable, with a portion of the fibers optimized for lowest latency and a portion optimized for 100X100 Gbps design capacity. The total cross-sectional design capacity of the cable will be over 53 Tbps.

Mike Conradi, Telecoms partner at DLA Piper, commented: "The Atlantic is the busiest connectivity corridor in the world with data traffic growing 40% a year. This new cable also opens up the possibility of further routes being built on the basis of reducing latency - an entirely new prospect for the industy."

"DLA Piper's unparalleled expertise on submarine cable matters was invaluable to Hibernia Networks on this project - the team didn't just provide legal advice they acted as trusted advisors on many aspects of the project" said Jim Prenetta, General Counsel of Hibernia.

The DLA Piper real estate team was led from Sheffield by senior associate Ben Rogers with Sheffield Managing Partner Petra Billing and chartered legal executive Michelle Eyre (all Real Estate) assisting on land matters. Telecoms partner Mike Conradi led on the commercial contract aspects.

Ben Rogers added: "It's been a real privilege to work with Hibernia Networks on this landmark project. The new cable places the company at the cutting edge of technology and will significantly enhance transatlantic communication across a host of different industries."