Nordic consortium aims to link Europe, Asia and the US with new subsea cable that is expected to come online in 2030
A Nordic consortium is exploring the possibility of building one of the largest ever European digital infrastructure projects – a subsea cable linking Northern Europe, East Asia and the US via the Arctic. The Project, Polar Connect, has been granted €4 million from the European Commission to fund the project phase: Polar Connect Step 1.
Today, 90% of all data communication between Europe and Asia passes through the Red Sea which is “a route increasingly impacted by geopolitical challenges”. Polar Connect proposes to take a safer and shorter route via the Arctic to reduce latency and improve resilience.
GlobalConnect has decided to join the consortium whose other members are Vetenskapsrådet via Sunet, NORDUnet, Polarforskningssekretariatet and Danmarks Tekniske Universitet. GlobalConnect is a leading digital infrastructure and data communication provider in the Nordic region, carrying more than half of all data traffic in and out of the Nordics.
GlobalConnect delivers fibre-based broadband services to more than 830,000 private consumers and end-to-end connectivity to 30,000 B2B customers via its 243,000 km fibre network across Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Finland. GlobalConnect employs about 2,000 people and had a turnover of SEK 7.6 billion (€661 million) in 2023.
GlobalConnect has several years of experience in deploying subsea cables in Scandinavia, recently completing the largest digital infrastructure project in the Nordics for the last decade, a 2,600km cable from Northern Sweden to Berlin, capable of transporting all data in the Nordics.
An ambitious long-term project
Polar Connect Step 1 starts in 2025, with bottom surveys of the optimal route and other preparations being made. The Swedish government is discussing the build of a brand-new ice breaker vessel, capable of breaking through ice 4m thick and unexplored Arctic ice. When the cable is laid, the new vessel will be used alongside the Swedish ice breaker Oden (pictured, in the Artic Ocean). The cable will be deployed at a depth of 4,000m in the Arctic Ocean and is scheduled for use in 2030.
In December, Meta also announced it would build its own subsea cable to avoid trouble spots, including the Red Sea. The route will form a rough W starting from the US’ east coast, to Cape Town in South Africa, then Mumbai in India, with an offshoot to the Indian city of Chennai, before landing at Darwin in northern Australia and the last leg back to the the US west coast.