The new express route is the shortest system connecting Norway with continental Europe and has been selected by the Norwegian Communications Authority as the new main fibre system for the country’s international data traffic.
In addition, the launch of the system supports Norway national strategy to become a data centre destination. As such, Havsil provides a direct high-capacity route to connect data centres in Norway with Europe, in a more accessible and secure way.
“We are very pleased to have completed the subsea section of Havsil ahead of time and with successful burial all the way,” said Peder Nærbø, founder and chairman of the board at Bulk Infrastructure.
“Havsil will play an important role for National and International data security and support the growing ecosystem of sustainable digital infrastructure in the Nordic. We can now offer high fibre count and the lowest latency route between any Norwegian data centre location and key markets in continental Europe”
Announced in 2020 with Telia Carrier as its anchor tenant, the 120km, 96-fibre-pair cable was manufactured in Germany, transported, and laid using a multi-purpose offshore vessel.
The cable spans Skagerrak, the strait separating Norway and Denmark and joins a new terrestrial segment running down Denmark’s west coast, avoiding the more traditional routes to form a diverse new express route to Norway.
The end points include Bulk’s N01 data centre campus in Kristiansand, Norway and DK01 data centre campus in Esbjerg, Denmark.
The system became fully contracted in April of this year following the completion of the marine survey by Geo-data specialist Fugro with their vessel Fugro Meridian. NSW, part of Prysmian Group, manufactured the cable in its Nordenham factory, with the final supply contract awarded to Cecon Contracting to perform the installation and marine operations for the system, chartering its Havila Phoenix vessel to complete the offshore phase of the HAVSIL cable.
The Havsil fibre system is due to be ready for service by December 2021.
