Getting a submarine cable through the Northwest Passage is no small feat. For centuries our ancestors collided with ice, present during most of the year in this region of the world. Not enough to scare the companies Cinia and Far North Digital, which are going to pull a submarine cable baptized Far North Fiber, between Japan and Europe through this passage.
Far North Fiber will link Japan to Europe
In recent years, many submarine cable projects have emerged. Recently, the 2Africa consortium announced four new branches for its huge submarine cable which is to connect Africa. For its part, Far North Fiber will reduce uncomfortable latency between Northern Europe and Asia. Two cables already connect these two regions of the world: FLAG and SEA-ME-WE3. However, they pass through the Suez Canal and experts know full well that this region is at risk. They could be sabotaged quite easily.
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This giant cable of 14,000 kilometers could be operational by 2025. If this date is met, the Far North Fiber cable will be one year ahead of the marketing of the Russian Polar Express cable. The Northwest Passage is a dangerous sea route due to the ice found there. Cinia and Far North Digital hope that “New climatic conditions”, due to the warming of the atmosphere, will facilitate their construction efforts.
The Northwest Passage: a subject that dates from the 15th century
Other passages exist, but they require a cross connection with other cables or routes on terrestrial networks. These types of connections add latency and complexity. The Northwest Passage is the only solution. This is a problem that dates from the 15th century. Not that of network latency obviously, but rather choosing the right route to connect Asia from Europe.
At the time, European traders faced the same problem in getting to Asia. A round trip over land took years and involved many risks. The navigators of the time therefore have wanted to take the famous Northwest Passage, this sea route which crosses the Atlantic and part of the Arctic, then the summit of North America, before sliding south to Japan.
Like us, they were faced with the ice very present in the passage. For 400 years, therefore, many ships perished in this region of the world. The sea route is still not considered commercially viable. Nothing to worry about the Finnish company Cinia and the American company Far North Digital, who decided to build a submarine cable that will cross the passage. One end of the cable will be in Japan, it will touch Alaska before ending in Norway, Finland and Ireland.