Amazon Web Services announced Fastnet, a transatlantic subsea fiber optic cable system connecting Maryland and County Cork, Ireland. The system carries a design capacity exceeding 320 terabits per second and is slated to enter service in 2028.
Fastnet adds a new data pathway with landing points that sit outside the traditional cable corridors. AWS says the route strengthens network resilience by providing backup connectivity if other undersea cables encounter issues, while also creating capacity for cloud computing, AI, and edge applications running on services such as Amazon CloudFront and AWS Global Accelerator.
The stakes are immediate. AWS reports an AI revenue run rate above $15 billion, and the company now operates 124 Availability Zones across 39 geographic regions, with seven more zones and two additional regions planned for Saudi Arabia and Chile. A single cable with 320 Tbps of capacity can transmit the entire digitized Library of Congress three times per second, or stream 12.5 million high-definition films at once. That is the kind of headroom AWS needs if AI traffic keeps growing at its current pace.
Why a new cable, and why now
Subsea cables carry roughly 99 percent of international internet traffic, and most transatlantic routes cluster along a handful of corridors. A single anchor drag or earthquake can cut multiple cables at once, as happened in the Red Sea in 2024. Fastnet's landing points in Maryland and Cork give AWS a geographically separate route that avoids the congested North Atlantic corridor.
The cable incorporates advanced optical switching branching unit technology positioned along the route. That unit can redirect data to future landing points as network demands evolve, which means AWS can add capacity without laying a new cable. The design also includes armored cable and additional steel wire layers in nearshore areas to protect against natural and human activity.
AWS already monitors its global network in real time and says its centralized traffic system implements millions of daily optimizations. The company reports that automated tools resolve 96 percent of network events without human intervention, using services such as Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, and Amazon CloudWatch.
Edge computing rides the same fiber
Edge applications depend on low latency between end users and cloud regions. AWS connects nearly 20 million kilometers of terrestrial and subsea fiber, enough to reach from Earth to the Moon and back more than 25 times. Fastnet extends that backbone across the Atlantic with a dedicated route rather than shared capacity on a consortium cable.
The timing matters for edge deployments in Europe. AWS customers running workloads in Ireland can route transatlantic traffic through a diverse path instead of competing for bandwidth on existing cables. That matters for latency-sensitive applications such as live video, gaming, and real-time AI inference at the edge.
Community investment and local impact
Amazon plans to build a compact Power Feed Equipment building near the Maryland landing point. The company says it stores no data, uses no water, and is not a data center. Amazon is also establishing Community Benefit Funds for Maryland's Eastern Shore and the Cork area, with local stakeholders helping decide which programs receive support.
Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin called the cable a vote of confidence in Ireland's digital future, saying it will enhance global connectivity and strengthen economic competitiveness. Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the project secures the state's status as a global hub for innovation and high-tech investment.
What to watch
Fastnet will not be operational until 2028. Between now and then, AWS must complete permitting, manufacturing, and installation across the Atlantic. The optical switching branching unit gives the system room to grow, but the real test is whether demand for AI and edge workloads justifies the capacity by the time the cable goes live.
It is not clear this will hold. Other hyperscalers are building their own private cables, and shared consortium cables still offer cheaper capacity for customers willing to accept less diversity. AWS is betting that dedicated infrastructure and route diversity will matter more than price per terabit.
The cable also fits into a broader pattern. AWS has been expanding its global fiber backbone for nearly two decades, and Fastnet represents a shift from relying on consortium-built cables to owning the entire path. That gives AWS control over repair schedules, capacity upgrades, and routing decisions, which matters when a single cable cut can disrupt services across an entire region.
For enterprise customers, the practical question is whether Fastnet changes their architecture decisions. Companies with workloads split between US East and European regions currently depend on existing transatlantic cables that share landing points with dozens of other operators. Fastnet offers a physically separate route, which reduces the chance that a single event takes down both primary and backup paths.
The Maryland landing point is notable because it sits outside the major cable landing stations in New Jersey and Virginia. That geographic separation is the point. AWS is not just adding capacity; it is adding a route that fails independently from existing infrastructure.
AWS has also been investing in edge infrastructure closer to users. The company operates dozens of CloudFront edge locations and Local Zones in cities around the world, placing compute and storage within single-digit milliseconds of end users. Fastnet complements that strategy by ensuring the backbone between those edge sites and core regions has enough capacity and diversity to handle spikes in AI inference traffic.
The 320 Tbps design capacity is not just for today's workloads. AWS says the optical switching branching unit can accommodate future topology changes, meaning the cable can serve new landing points without additional construction. That flexibility matters in a market where demand projections shift every quarter.
Competitors are not standing still. Google and Meta have both invested in private subsea cables, and Microsoft continues to expand its Azure global network. The race is not just about capacity but about who controls the path. Owning the cable means owning the repair timeline and the upgrade schedule, which translates to predictable performance for customers.
For now, Fastnet remains a plan. The 2028 operational date leaves a window for competitors to respond, and the cable's success depends on whether AI workloads continue to grow at the pace AWS is projecting.
For more on AWS global infrastructure, see AWS Global Infrastructure. For related coverage, visit Cloud & Edge Computing.
The 2028 operational date leaves a window for competitors to respond, and the cable's success depends on whether AI workloads continue to grow at the pace AWS is projecting.