€1bn undersea data cable plan to link Galway to Asia

The Irish government has backed plans for a new €1.1 billion fibre optic subsea cable connecting Galway and Norway to Japan through the Arctic Circle.

The Far North Fiber project will run a 15,000 kilometre route from the Norwegian coast to Greenland, with a line splitting off into Galway, before hugging the Canadian Arctic coast and passing by Alaska into the Pacific Ocean and on to Japan.

The cable would connect Europe directly to Asia and allow massive data transfers at speed, connecting major data centre hubs in Ireland to Asia.

The project was originally conceived by the Finnish company Cinia, with the initial route plotted in 2018 to run along the Russian coast.

The invasion of Ukraine and rising geopolitical tensions saw the project change course, and switch to the opposite side of the Arctic circle for its primary route.

It is now being spearheaded by a consortium of companies, including Cinia, Arteria Networks, a Japanese company, Far North Digital, an Alaskan company, and Alcatel Submarine Networks, an international cable supply chain company.

Ossian Smyth, junior minister at the department of communications, said when the planned route changed, he approached the Finnish government to say Ireland would like to be involved.

“I told the Finns I would be very keen to get the connection in to Ireland too, and Galway bay was the ideal landing spot,” Smyth told the Business Post.

Smyth said he met with LuLu Ranne, the Finnish communications minister, last week and that she welcomed Ireland’s involvement. Ranne is meeting the Japanese communications minister on Monday to discuss the project.

Galway recently landed a subsea fibre optic cable from Iceland, and is increasingly seen as a high potential area for future projects.

“Certain data centres may find Galway a more attractive place as a result,” Smyth said.

Smyth said that the Irish government would consider investing in the project, but first it had to establish its broader policy in relation to subsea cables.

He said a new paper on whether Ireland will subsidise or take a more active interest in future subsea cable projects will be published later this month.

Regardless of whether the Irish government decides to invest in Far North Fiber, Smyth said he would be pushing for significant European funding for the project, which is expected to cost over €1 billion.

“We want Europe to support this. Both through the Projects of Common Interest and the Connecting Europe facility. But we also think they should go further, and take a much greater strategic interest in these cables,” he said.

The Arctic Circle is an increasingly important geographic region, where a number of world superpowers have territory facing in on one another. As climate change is causing ice to retreat for longer periods every year, routes for trade, mineral and fossil fuel exploration, and even military activity are increasing.

Ireland applied to become an observer member of the Arctic Council, the international body diplomatic body for the region, in 2021, but was rejected.