Fierce storms battering the UK’s west coast won’t delay the lighting of Europe’s first new subsea cable in over a decade, despite causing problems for ships laying the link.
A spokeswoman for Sea Fibre Networks, which is deploying the 131 km CeltixConnect cable linking Ireland to the UK, says hurricane-force storms over the past week haven’t scuppered its plans to go live in January. Work to lay the fiber optic link began earlier this month, and is scheduled to be completed by December 30.
“The weather shouldn’t cause too much delay for the cable lay,” the staffer told Telecoms Europe.net, adding. “Everything is still on track.”
Latest information on the location of Cable Innovator, the vessel laying the cable, show it was roughly halfway through its task by early evening on December 14.
SeaFibre amassed $15 million (€11.5 million) in a recent funding round to proceed with the UK link. While the firm plans to use that to connect to the rest of Europe, recent reports indicate it is also eyeing construction of a direct link to France.