Far North Fiber Kicks Off Cable Route Study

Might we have a pan-Arctic submarine cable system in just a few years? Far North Fiber has taken the next step toward making its proposed project reality by kicking off the cable route study, which would be followed by a marine survey.

Far North Fiber’s plans call for a 15,000km system that would connect Japan to both Finland and Ireland via the fabled Northwest Passage. Along the way it would offer connectivity to Arctic destinations in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Alcatel Submarine Networks will be helping with the study, which will try to nail down the path that will balance the various competing needs of safety, reliability, cultural, and environmental factors.

FNF is a joint venture between Cinia Oy, Far North Digital, and ARTERIA Networks Corporation, and has funding from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility. That will help push through these early stages, but the hard part has always been finding the funding for the actual cable build. The economics of this route suggest to me that public/government funds will have to be involved.  But if it happens, FNF will be quite a unique project that adds significant diversity to our global infrastructure.

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Categories: Undersea cables