A new subsea cable connecting the UK to mainland Europe is being proposed.
Announced at the Submarine Networks EMEA Conference in London this week, IOEMA Fibre announced plans for a new high-capacity cable between the UK and Norway via the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
The 1,400km long repeater cable features 48 fiber pairs, giving 27-29 Tbps per pair for an overall capacity of 1.3 Pbps.
In the UK, Colt is the landing partner, with the cable set to land in a Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Dumpton Gap in Southeast England, previously used for the Tangerine and Pan-European Crossing cables.
In the Netherlands, IOEMA is partnering with Eurofiber and QTS. Landing in a CLS previously hosting the VSNL/TGN Northern Europe cable, the new cable will terminate in QTS’s Eemshaven data center. In Denmark, the fiber company is partnering with Arelion, and will host at a landing station in Blaabjerg that previously hosted the TAT-14 cable system. In Germany, IOEMA is partnering with EWE for a new CLS in Wilhelmshaven on the north coast.
The cable will terminate in Norway at a new CLS at Bulk’s campus in Kristiansand, and connect to Bulk’s fiber systems in the country.
Eckhard Bruckschen, CTO of IOEMA Fibre Ltd, said the project has been in the planning stages since 2019. The company aims to close financing this year and start construction by 2026 for a late 2027 go-live date.
He added that the company was seeking an anchor customer for the cable, which is being pitched as a high-capacity replacement for a number of aging cables in the area – such as SeaMeWe-3, TAT-14, CANTAT-3 – that have been decommissioned or are due to reach end-of-life in the coming years.
Bruckschen is a director at Undersea Cable Consultancy Limited and MD of SubCableNews. Little else is known about IOEMA.
