As part of the initial agreement, Laser Light will establish its inaugural global Point of Presence (PoP) at Equinix’s DC11 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in the Washington, D.C. area.
With its deployment at DC11, Laser Light will commence installation, testing and demonstration of its leading-edge laser communications and SD-WAN equipment. Once operational, the HALO satellite constellation will offer its Optical Satellite as a Service (OSaaS) - SpaceCable™ services – to carriers, enterprises and government customers at Equinix facilities around the globe, providing a seamless all-optical communications system, through its hybrid satellite-terrestrial network, capable of quickly and cost-effectively connecting any two points on the globe with 100Gbps service links.
The initial deployment in Equinix’s DC11 IBX is expected to grow with additional Points of Presence planned globally, including Equinix facilities in the UK, Japan, Brazil, Australia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Space-based laser communication technology – known as Free Space Optics – stems from 20+ years of civil science and federal investments and deployments by government entities such as Department of Defense (DOD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Space Agency (JSA). It is now being commercialized for the first time by private firms, such as Laser Light.
Equinix is home to 1,400+ networks and 2,500+ cloud and IT service providers on its global platform with 145+ data centers, across 40 top markets on five continents. This makes it the home of the interconnected cloud and a natural partner for Laser Light’s HALO Network. By leveraging Equinix’s rich ecosystem of customers, Equinix provides Laser Light a marketplace enabling it to offer its capacity to Equinix customers, who require low latency, high data volume transmission services for their global market destinations.
An Equinix partnership will permit Laser Light to access global facilities, which will aid in its need for interconnection with local and terrestrial fiber infrastructure as necessary to bypass atmospheric interference and deliver its Optical Satellite as a Service (“OSaaS”) directly to its customers.