“I think more cables need to land across the US, but New Jersey has been home to cables for 100 years. It’s a proven area, we’ve got density of population, we’ve got a thriving business community, we have financial exchanges, we can’t afford a lack of interconnection,” stated Santaliz.

Another important topic of discussion was Confluence-1, a 24 fiber pair submarine cable along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Paul Scott, President and CEO of Confluence Networks explained that his reasoning for deploying the new cable system was due to the need to enhance connectivity while still balancing latency and high performance. This cable is providing more secure linkages through existing terrestrial routes from Miami to New York. 

“We have critical mass now in terms of carriers that are here, economies of scale. When we do this all of my customers benefit, they all benefit from being in a better, more secure place, and getting the latest and greatest of what we do best. If I start expanding beyond what I do best, I’m not going to be as good as what I’m supposed to be doing, and that’s just housing the network, interconnecting, providing them smart hands for their equipment to lower their costs, provide marine protection services, and do what you do best. That’s what we believe in.” – Gil Santaliz, Founder and CEO, NJFX

While the other panelists agreed on focusing on their own expertise, they acknowledged that the pandemic is acting as a catalyst for digital transformation, forcing many to work together to discover solutions that can help best aid their customers.

Santaliz concluded by stating, “We happen to be sitting in probably one of the hottest markets ever for telecommunications, in terms of investments…it’s a fascinating time.”