The Far North Fiber project in Europe is set to directly connect Europe to Japan with a 14 500 km cable laid along the ocean bottom of the Arctic zone. Connection points will be organized in Japan, the USA (Alaska), Canada, Norway, Finland and Ireland.
The project is scheduled to be put into operation in 2027.
The new traffic transmission route reduces the optical distance between Japan and Western Europe as much as possible and, therefore, the delay in signal transmission will be minimal.
In addition, the new fiber optic cable is positioned as the best option for use as a backup communication line in case an accident occurs in other locations of underwater cables, such as the accident in the Red Sea in February this year.
The EU government has already announced support for the Far North Fiber project and allocated about €23 million for its implementation.
Laying a cable in the Arctic used to be an unthinkable undertaking due to the presence of a thick multi-year layer of non-melting ice. However, global warming has made navigation in the Arctic possible. According to available data, sea ice in the region is decreasing by almost 13% every decade.
Summer thaws in the Arctic will allow ships to lay cable, and frosts, which again bind the water surface with ice and last most of the year, will protect the cable from humans threats - both from intentional damage and from accidental anchor drop. In addition, no one will cut the cable under the ice, because it is very difficult to do this.
However, this plus will become a minus if the cable still requires repair. It can take weeks or even months of waiting for weather conditions to make repairs possible, depending on the time of year.
Drifting ice may also pose a threat. Last summer, for example, broadband was cut off in Alaska after an underwater fiber-optic line was severed by chunks of Arctic ice.
Such risks and difficult climatic conditions make work on the Arctic fiber optic network more expensive compared to other projects.
According to Alan Moldin, Director of Research at TeleGeography, laying a cable along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean will cost about €250 million, along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean - about €320 million, while the total cost of work on the Far North Fiber project will amount to €1 billion, iksmedia.ru reports.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
