Submarine cable construction is booming right now. Europe contains many important hubs for subsea cables, with many of the world’s busiest routes serving the continent. With new ownership models and new hubs, open cable developments, security questions and more, it is an exciting time for European submarine cable builds right now. Here are nine builds to keep an eye on.
Medusa submarine cable
Length: 8,700 km
Estimated completion: Q4 2025
The Medusa subsea cable is a pan-Mediterranean cable linking Port Said in Egypt to Lisbon in Portugal, via landing points in every North African country, Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Cyprus. Medusa, whose developers agreed to extend to Libya in November 2023, spans 8,760km, offering 24 fibre pairs at up to 20 Tbps per fibre pair. The submarine cable is expected to be ready for service in either 2025 or 2026.
Get an exclusive update on the Medusa project at Subsea Connect 2024
SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable
Length: 21,700 km
Estimated completion: 2025
SEA-ME-WE 6 is the latest iteration of a cable that changed how the world communicates. SEA-ME-WE 1, launched by a 22-company consortium in 1985, broke the reliance on terrestrial and satellite for communications between East Asia and Europe. The route has been so in demand that five more versions of the cable have been built since then.
The latest, SEA-ME-WE 6, carries 10 fibre pairs at 12.6 Tbps each, running from Tuas in Singapore to Marseilles in France via a terrestrial segment between the Egyptian cities of Ras Ghareb and Port Said. SEA-ME-WE 6 is due for completion in 2025, and like its predecessors is being built by a sprawling consortium of 15 carriers as well as participation from Microsoft.
Andromeda submarine cable
Length: TBC
Estimated completion: 2025
Andromeda is a strategically important cable that runs from Korakia in Crete to the Tirat Carmel landing point in Israel, and overland from there to the fast-growing Middle Eastern digital hubs of Aqaba and Haql. Andromeda, which also stops off in Cyprus, will be ready for service in 2025, offering capacity to Southern Europe that avoids the Suze pinch point.
Get an exclusive update on the Andromeda project at Subsea Connect 2024
2Africa submarine cable
Length: 45,000 km
Estimated completion: 2024
The world’s largest submarine cable, 2Africa runs for 45,000 km, circumnavigating Africa to connect 46 landing points across 33 countries, including the United Kingdom, India, and scores of countries in the Middle East and Africa. While the project focuses on delivering connectivity to Africa, it is also an important new route for European markets, landing in Greece, France, Spain, Italy, the UK and Portugal. As of March 2024, consortium members reported separate landings in Ghana, Nigeria and Portugal for the cable, which is due to complete in late 2024 and offer capacity of up to 180 Tbps.
Anjana submarine cable
Length:, 7,100 km
Estimated completion: Q4 2024
The Anjana submarine cable is a 7,000km link between the United States and Spain, due for completion at the end of 2024. The cable is one of several, including the Nuvem and Firmina cables from Google, which will land at the new DC Blox landing station in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. On the other side of the Atlantic, Anjana will land in Santander. The cable offers 480 Tbps of capacity across 24 fibre pairs, making it among the highest-capacity cables in the world.
Unitirreno submarine cable
Length: 1,200 km
Estimated completion: Q3 2025
The 890 km Unitirreno system is one of several new projects making use of Sparkle’s Genoa Landing Platform, running from the northern Italian city to Mazara del Vallo in Sicily via Rome and the Sardinian capital of Olbia. Unitirreno is a 24-pair open cable system project, which as of September 2023 reported the completion of its marine survey. Launch date for the whole project is set for Q2 2025.
Get an exclusive update on the Unitirreno project at Subsea Connect 2024
Piano Isole Minori submarine cable
Length: 830 km
Estimated completion: Q4 2024
Piano Isole Minori translates to ‘Minor Islands Plan’ in English. That describes accurately what this cable will achieve – laying 860 kilometres of subsea cable to deliver broadband connectivity to 21 islands around Italy. This cable project is part of the Italy 2026 strategy, part of which aims to bolster connectivity in rural and underserved areas of the country. Just a quarter of Italy can currently access high-speed broadband.
French Guiana-Europe cable
Length: 8,000 km
Estimated completion: TBC
January 2024 saw La Société Publique Locale pour l'Aménagement Numérique de la Guyane (SPLANG) award EllaLink with a contract to build an 8,000km subsea cable between French Guiana and Europe. The new system, which connects the space hub of French Guiana to continental Europe directly, features two fibre pairs and will provide direct connection along the route with an RTD latency of under 80ms.
Underscoring the importance of connecting French Guyana to Europe in a reliable fashion, the upcoming project will benefit from funding under the Connecting Europe Facility programme, which provides funds to deploy high-capacity backbone networks such as 5G and submarine projects.
Beaufort submarine cable
Length: TBC
Estimated completion: 2024
The Beaufort cable, built by an Amazon Web Services – Vodafone partnership, will run between the southern Irish coast and south-western England and is due to complete construction in 2024. Beaufort will run along the route of, and replace, an existing obsolete cable, with the ESAT-1 infrastructure from that project also reused. Beaufort received environmental clearance from Irish authorities in November 2023.
Iceni submarine cable
Length: TBC
Estimated completion: 2024
British incumbent BT is building the Iceni cable from Norfolk in the eastern part of the United Kingdom to the Callantsoog landing point on the Dutch coast. Iceni – named after an ancient tribe of eastern England – was initially due to be built for launch in 2021 but is now slated for completion at some point in 2024.
If you want to hear more about these projects and other upcoming developments in European subsea, the Subsea Connect event is back in the hub of Marseilles on 10 and 11 July - find out more here. Additionally, the Capacity Europe event in London in October is also a gathering point for subsea project discussions - learn more here.
Route, length, consortium and ready for service (RFS) information for all cables taken from TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map
