Dunant

Overview

Dunant is a transatlantic submarine cable system spanning approximately 6,400 kilometres between France and the United States. It is a single-owner system operated by Google, connecting Western Europe to the eastern seaboard of North America. The cable has been in service since 2021.

Route and Landings

In France, Dunant lands at Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, a coastal commune on the Atlantic shore of the Vendée department.

In the United States, the cable lands at Virginia Beach, Virginia, on the mid-Atlantic coast.

Ownership and Operators

Dunant is wholly owned by Google. Google has invested in multiple private submarine cable systems as part of its global network infrastructure strategy, making Dunant one of the company's dedicated transatlantic links.

Status and Timeline

Dunant entered service in 2021 and has been operational for approximately five years. No end-of-service date has been announced.

Technical Profile

At 6,400 kilometres, Dunant is longer than roughly half of the other submarine cables that touch France or the United States, placing it near the median length for its corridor.

Regional Context

The transatlantic corridor connecting France and the United States is one of the more densely served intercontinental submarine cable routes. France hosts 24 submarine cable systems across 19 landing points, while the United States is served by 75 cable systems spread across 119 landing points. Within this corridor, Dunant shares the route with systems of widely varying scale, including the PEACE Cable and Asia Africa Europe-1, both of which land in France, and Project Waterworth, which connects to the United States. These peer cables range from regional systems to multi-continent networks exceeding 25,000 kilometres in length, making Dunant a relatively compact, point-to-point system by comparison.

Performance monitoring across 78 ping tests over the past 60 days records an average round-trip latency of 113.7 ms for traffic transiting Dunant, with a best recorded result of 27.8 ms.

Strategic Role

With just two landing points — one in France and one in the United States — Dunant provides a direct, privately controlled transatlantic link between Continental Europe and the North American east coast. Its point-to-point configuration, combined with sole ownership by Google, distinguishes it from the multi-owner consortium cables that dominate this corridor, giving a single operator direct control over the full length of the system.