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The first ever Arctic fiber-optic cable will link Europe to Japan. The initial investment to build it is already secured.
Arctic – illustrative photo. Image credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center, AGU
The total cost of this project is estimated to reach 1.1 billion Euro ($1.15 billion), announced the consortium Far North Fiber which will lay the cable on the Arctic seabed.
This consortium is led by the Finnish company Cinia in partnership with U.S.-based Far North Digital and Japan’s Arteria Networks.
According to the developers, the initial plan was to construct this data link along the Russian Arctic coastline, in a joint venture with Megafon, the second-largest mobile phone operator in Russia.
However, the project was scrapped in 2021, because Russia did not give the final approval to lay the cable in its territorial area.
The new project aims to achieve the same goal, but will use a different route. The subsea cable will be laid via North America, and will become a part of the global internet infrastructure.
Specialists estimate that the new cable should reduce data transmission delays between Frankfurt and Tokyo by approximately 30%. The cable will contain 12 pairs of optic fibers.
The cost of a single fiber pair is around 100 million euros. An additional 100 million are required to maintain the operation of the data link throughout its projected 30-year lifespan, for every fiber pair.
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