Farice Plan New Subsea Fibre Cable to Link Iceland with Scotland and the UK

Icelandic network operator Farice has proposed to deliver a significant data capacity boost between the UK and Iceland by unveiling plans to build a new subsea fibre link – named AUÐUR, which will connect to Scotland via a service delivery point in either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

At present Farice already operates three subsea (submarine) fibre optic cables that connect Iceland with Ireland (IRIS), Scotland (FARICE-1) and mainland Europe (DANICE). But the FAIRCE-1 cable, which was first deployed some 22 years ago in 2004, is starting to get a bit older and will turn 30 in 2033, thus it makes sense to have a replacement ready in time for the old cable to eventually be retired.

The new cable will be named AUÐUR, referencing the settler Auður the Deep-Minded (Auður djúpúðga Ketilsdóttir), who sailed from Scotland to Iceland, as described in the Icelandic Sagas. We don’t know much about the cable itself, although it’s expected to be built with high capacity to meet the rapidly growing demand for international connectivity between Iceland and Europe and is projected to include 16–24 fibre pairs.

A marine survey of the proposed cable route is scheduled to take place during summer 2027. If plans proceed as expected, the cable is then anticipated to be operational by 2030.

Thorvardur Sveinsson, CEO of Farice, told ISPreview:

“The time has come to further strengthen Iceland’s telecommunications infrastructure by building a new high-capacity cable. Through the new cable we will create a new low latency route between Iceland and Europe’s key network hubs as well and further strengthen the digital bridge within the Nordics. Icelandic data centres can be seamlessly integrated into network topologies, bridging the US and Nordic markets. The Nordic region is rapidly emerging as a major data centre hub, making interconnectivity with the Nordics ever more important.”

A service delivery point is planned in either Glasgow or Edinburgh. From there, diverse routes will be available to major European telecom hubs, including London, Dublin, Amsterdam and the other Nordic countries.

UPDATE 12:59pm

Farice has kindly provided ISPreview with a few additional details. The cable will be around 1,300km long from the south cost of Iceland to the Firth of Clyde with additional 40-50km to Glasgow. The cable will be a high capacity cable with 16-24 fibre pairs resulting in 320-480 Tbps (Terabits per second) of capacity.