Zayo’s UK and European Fibre Network Gets Fully 400G Enabled

The Zayo Group, which runs a large metro and long-haul fibre optic network that delivers global reach, has just announced that their network capacity across the United Kingdom and Europe has been “supercharged” by becoming fully 400G (Gbps) enabled. Next stop.. 800G!

Zayo’s European network is currently built on 5 diverse subsea cables, 3 of which are owned and operated by Zayo itself, powering 2,500 on-net buildings, 125 core Points of Presence (PoPs) and 16 Metro Fibre markets. The latest upgrade allows broadband ISPs, mobile operator, other carriers, businesses, data centres and hyperscalers to access even higher bandwidth and lower latency connectivity.

The new 400G network appears to be based off Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme platform, which is interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which because it can reportedly drive a threefold increase in fibre capacity while reducing power per bit by 80% and physical space needed by 85% – compared to the original WaveLogic generation.

On top of that the Ciena platform can also support an upgrade to future 800G network. Speaking of which, we note that Zayo claims to have already broken the world record for the longest 800G optical wave in a commercial network at 1,044.51km.

Yannick Leboyer, MD for Europe at Zayo Group, said:

“Our customers are increasingly taking advantage of bandwidth-intensive applications to keep up with the competition – from AI and IoT to advanced analytics – which require significantly higher bandwidth and low latency connectivity.

Our ultimate goal is to ensure our global clients can remain on the cutting edge. That’s why we’re committed to the continued enhancement and modernization of our network to provide the fastest, most reliable connectivity.”

Zayo’s North American network is also scheduled to be fully 400G enabled by the end of 2024.