Vodafone Iceland is part of a multi-sector partnership building one of the most technologically advanced data centres in Iceland. The construction will be in stages, the first is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2019.
“We are very pleased to be members of the consortium for the Celtic Norse project and we believe this initiative will significantly help us growing the data centre business out of Iceland,” said Heiðar Guðjónsson, CEO of Vodafone Iceland. “The natural cooling in the Arctic and 100% renewable energy, will make data centres here the most environmentally friendly and efficient in the world. Celtic Norse might also add up synergies for an interconnected data centre market, opening up for partnership or cooperation across the regions.”
In addition, Celtic Norse is also exploring the opportunity to develop a branch cable into Scotland working with the government’s infrastructure body, the Scottish Futures Trust and Host in Scotland, the data centre body that it sponsors.
“The digital team at Scottish Futures Trust has been working with stakeholders to build an understanding of how it could improve Scotland’s direct connectivity to Europe and USA,” added James King, chairman of Host in Scotland. “There is growing recognition that a direct connection would greatly benefit Scotland’s economy as well as improving national resilience by increasing the number of international subsea fibre links. “I am therefore extremely pleased that we have developed this opportunity with Celtic Norse to further this ambition and we very much look forward to continuing to work with them to investigate the delivery of this strategic connection.”
Celtic Norse will be working with Aquacomms as its operations partner for the venture. At the time of announcing the project, Aronsveen said that the idea for the system was originally proposed by Aqua Comms 3-4 years ago as an idea to develop the Norwegian market.
“We are delighted to be landing party in Ireland and providing system NOC services to the consortium,” continued Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Aquacomms. “The proposed landing in KIllala, Co. Mayo provides an ideal opportunity for resilient connectivity to Dublin, and beyond towards London, and provides for interconnectivity, via America Europe Connect (AEC-1) cable to New York and beyond. Aquacomms specialises in developing, building and operating SubSea cables; as a neutral, carriers’ carrier this allows us to deliver the best value in submarine cable infrastructure management.”
The news follows a request for information carried out by Celtic Norse in June 2019; the company then went into a Request for Price (RFP) on 30 September.
“Celtic Norse heads into the RFP with the confidence that a vendor will be selected to build the system by end of December 2019 and the final stages of financing will be complete with the significant advantage of having a contract signed for a turn-key build. Celtic Norse will provide a significant advantage to the new developing data centre industry in Norway and provide much needed resilience to the countries international connectivity,” said Erling Aronsveen (pictured), CEO, Celtic Norse.
