 Hi everyone and welcome to ITW extra powered by JSA coming to today live from the floor of ITW in National Harbor and joining me today is Jim Fagan Brand new CEO of Aqua comms. Welcome. Well, great. Thank you. Great to be here I know this is far from your first time at ITW. You're a veteran of the industry But but new in your role to Aqua comms and it's exciting. We're excited to be here talking to you for the first time on JSA TV Tell us a bit about first of all your how you're finding the show and your experience being back here in your new role No, great. Thanks for that and thanks for having me and it's it's really exciting to to be here in the new role He's actually always exciting to get back here. It's just The amount of people you meet you run into whether it's just old colleagues friends But you pick up your own current customers, but you also find out what's going on in the industry It's a great learning. So the time here is so valuable And to be able to come into the role At Aqua comms and start here is actually great because it's almost a mercy meet completely in the business with my team with the customers and Really, you know, I was excited to take this job. I've obviously no Aqua comms very well from being in the industry with them There's times I've competed with them. There's times I've cooperated with them So from the outside, I always had this great respect for them and it's uh, it's fantastic to get in on the inside And see not only was all kind of what I thought was true. It's even more so it's a it's a great team It's a great business. It's been super successful. I'm really passionate about our customers And uh, you know, really well respected. So I couldn't be more excited to be part of that team And see how we actually grow from that foundation and go take the next steps for the company Yeah, amazing. And and I couldn't agree more. What great timing. It's it's like it was planned, right? You start you're here. You get to talk to you know, such I'm sure a large base of your customers and partners and and and prospects and future connections I mean, what great timing but also a great start to the show for you. I know that you had some breaking news Yeah, no, and I'd love to take credit for but since I've only been here for a little bit The team's done an amazing job. So, you know, we announced one of the first production 400 gig connectivity Subsea on the transatlantic And so also end to end, you know, whittails and data centers so completely sank So again, I think it's, you know, a 400 gig on terrestrial is kind of a bit of old news Subsea there's still a lot of complexity and I think it's exciting for us because You know being um, you know pure subsea, you know carrier of carriers, you know, we have a lot of capacity We want to give our customers options as they use that and really for those customers use a large amount of capacity What it's going to do for them is it's going to allow them consolidate some of their traffic It's going to actually reduce cost by reducing cross connects on the back end On having the split traffic or combined traffic to then go from 100 g to 400 g terrestrial So again, it's it's the next evolution in subsea and again our team did a great job of being a pioneer in it And we're excited that we're going to actually productize this um on all of our current assets As well as the future ones that we have planned so it'll be a core offering from aquacombs going forward Fantastic and and I mean this isn't the only only innovation that's been happening. I think with aquacombs, right? You have AEC 3 Is another release. Absolutely. So if you look at our at our heritage being a you know a transatlantic Company, uh, we've actually had provider. So we've had two systems ac1 and ac2 So we got very unique with naming the other one ac3. Yeah, but uh, but it's um, it's important for us So it's going to give us three diverse and resilient routes across the atlantic for our customers Customers are looking for to get to different endpoints. So now we'll actually be able to pick up customers. If you think of the three cables Jersey or need This will be out of boston. Um, we interconnect in through uh, in through in through doubling in through the u k So it's more diverse routing Yeah for our customers and then um, you know, it just really helps our system and leverage systems And leverage the opportunity for our customers to get different levels of connectivity with us and uh, and more flexibility Yeah So important and I I mean, I I'm sure that you've been talking about all of these things throughout the week Uh, and is there anything else though sort of what as we think about You know, again, we've talked about you being back to itw It's it feels bigger than ever at least then it's been absolutely maybe four or so more more years Um, but but what are the big things that you're finding coming up this week for you? Yeah, I think it's you know, it's um It's interesting. I think obviously those four years also had operational impacts in the industry particularly in the sub-sea space Yeah, and you know demand though has you know for capacity has remained like unabated the growth of it and I mean Who knows what we'll see out of ai coming all as you know It's going to go up and probably go up a lot faster And what there has been is there's been a lot of delays on some new systems due to some supply chain issues Due to the constraints of so many people wanting capacity So, you know, it's just really reinforced that you know, we need to be that provider That can have capacity for our customers that we're in the right markets that they need to be And it's really helping me with the team kind of steer where we want to go next and and what we want to do So, you know, one thing I know that the we previously announced Was um, you know, we'll be uh when it goes live, um, you know Sometime next year in the next year, you know, we have a capacity on the two africa cable From europe into india That we for our purpose and we call it the emit cable But it's uh, it's so there and so really that's part of that global expansion That's what customers want. They want to be able to start going europe to india There's a there's a lack of capacity there. So what that's part of our expansion Is how do we take this expertise that we've developed in the atlantic? You know, I'm being just a world-class subsea provider and how do we actually take that and get more capacity More options for our customers in the in the big global data center hot spots that they want to be right? That's amazing to hear. I mean, that's been a big conversation. We've been having this. I mean, you mentioned ai That's yeah, we've been hearing that all over this week. I don't have an opinion on or anything else I'm not going to tell you the world's gonna end right but all I know in our business It's going to lead to more customer demand because it's just and so we have to be ready to serve that Yeah, and it's a global play as you said right and into the some of these bigger and developing markets That where there's just you know, the sky's the limit sort of thing So to be there to serve that is is so important and just sort of as we wrap up as we you know You think of leaving here and and where will you take these conversations sort of what's next for aquacoms over the next? I don't know year or year and a half Well, I think you know the one thing is is to keep executing like we've been executing for our customers and supporting them And operating the team has done a brilliant job on that It's actually you know bringing this AEC three system in online at the end of this summer It's you know getting ready We did an expansion into india as well by acquiring a company called open bite To provide that landing force provide those license but more importantly It's about the people that are part of that group the expertise that's on the ground That we can now offer customers and how they navigate getting their traffic into and out of india So it's a bit of the combination of that so getting that going and then how do we replicate that in other other areas of the world Whether it's in southeast asia or trans specific and then not just on the assets themselves But building the team of local experts that really know the market that can add the most value to our customers So really, you know, that's what a lot of my focus is on And I think and i'm hoping that at these conferences going forward You'll see a lot more announcements on us on seeing aquacoms expand and seeing um, you know Let's continue. Hopefully to be successful for our customers and given the options that they're looking for in the market Yeah, amazing and and we look forward to hearing about all of this Is it continues to evolve for you and for aquacoms and and so for our viewers who may want to connect with you with aquacoms How can they do that? Yeah, it's great. Just go to our website. Uh, w w Aquacoms.com. Yeah Don't you have to say that that much so i'm getting used to it. Yeah, exactly So go to the website and if you got any questions feel free to remember Yeah, feel free to reach out to any of our teams and uh We'd be excited to have those conversations with you. Fantastic. Thank you so much. No, thank you Yeah, really a pleasure to to meet you here for the first time on jsa tv Yeah, and thank you viewers for tuning in to jsa tv coming to you live today from itw on the floor of national harbour until next time See you soon great