• Edge Cable Holdings USA plans to use existing landing stations in New Jersey and Denmark and is targeting 15 January 2028 for service
  • Aurora's open-cable design allows different fibre owners to operate their own terminal equipment, while Meta has not decided how much capacity will be lit at launch

The fact

Meta subsidiary Edge Cable Holdings USA filed with the US Federal Communications Commission on 17 August for a landing licence for Aurora, a planned submarine cable between Manasquan, New Jersey, and Blaabjerg, Denmark. The 7,268km system would use existing landing stations owned by NJFX in New Jersey and Arelion in Denmark. Edge USA is targeting 15 January 2028 for the cable to enter service and has asked the FCC to grant the licence by November 2026.

Aurora is designed with 24 fibre pairs, each with a design capacity of about 20.7Tbps, for roughly 497Tbps across the system. Edge USA has not decided how much capacity will be lit at launch. The filing describes Aurora as an open cable, allowing different fibre owners to operate their own submarine line-terminal equipment, and says Edge USA may offer dark fibre in the secondary market.

The assessment

Aurora’s open-cable design means owning fibre and using it are two separate steps. A company could take its own fibre pair in the cable, then install the equipment needed to activate that fibre and decide how much capacity to use.

Until that equipment is installed and commissioned, the fibre cannot carry traffic. Meta has not said whether other companies will take fibre on Aurora or how much of the system will be active when it launches. The 497Tbps figure is therefore the cable’s maximum design capacity, not the amount that will necessarily be available on day one.

For BTW readers, the important point is that installed fibre does not automatically equal usable capacity. What matters commercially is who takes fibre on Aurora and how much of it is actually activated when the cable enters service.

What to watch

Watch for FCC approval, supplier appointments, marine installation and any dark-fibre agreements. When Aurora enters service, the key figure will be how much capacity is actually lit, rather than its 497Tbps design ceiling. That will show how much of the installed system is ready to carry traffic and whether other fibre owners are using their own terminal equipment.