Today’s telecom news includes announcements on Orange, Equitix, AmpliTech, SUBCO, Pisces Subsea Cable, Sydney–Melbourne Fiber Network, among others.
Orange, Equitix and MDM Launch 3,125-km Pisces Subsea Cable Connecting Four European Countries
Orange, infrastructure investor Equitix and Irish submarine cable developer MDM have established a joint venture to develop the 3,125-km Pisces submarine cable. The system will contain 16 fiber pairs connecting Galway in Ireland, Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez in France, Sopelana in Spain and Carcavelos in Portugal. Orange will construct a new cable landing station in Sopelana. The project has received financial support through the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility. Marine surveys conducted by Orange Marine and Elettra were completed in August 2026. Engineering and permitting are underway, with deployment expected in 2028. The system will provide open-access dark-fiber connectivity between Ireland and continental Europe.
AmpliTech Deploys 3,000 Open RAN Radios and Secures $17 Million in Q3 Orders
AmpliTech Group has confirmed that more than 3,000 Open RAN radio units are deployed in a North American mobile operator’s network. The company also reported receiving more than $17 million in customer purchase orders during the third quarter of 2026. Announced on October 14, the order total includes previously disclosed follow-on business supporting 5G Open RAN deployments in North America and Asia. AmpliTech supplies radio equipment, including Massive MIMO systems designed for disaggregated radio access networks. The company has not identified the participating operators or disclosed individual radio prices. The $17 million figure represents companywide quarterly purchase orders, not exclusively orders associated with the 3,000 deployed radios.
SUBCO Announces 850-km Sydney–Melbourne Fiber Network with 96 Fiber Pairs
Australian telecommunications infrastructure company SUBCO has announced plans to construct SM-1, an 850-km terrestrial fiber network connecting Sydney and Melbourne. Announced on October 13, the greenfield project will contain at least 96 fiber pairs, providing an independent high-capacity route between Australia’s two largest data-center markets. Construction preparations are underway, with commercial service targeted for June 2028. The network will connect cable landing stations, carrier-neutral data centers and cloud interconnection facilities. SM-1 complements SUBCO’s existing 5,000-km SMAP submarine cable, which entered service in June 2026 with 16 fiber pairs and more than 400 Tbps of design capacity. SUBCO has not disclosed SM-1’s investment value or contracted transmission capacity.