IRIS will be a six-fiber pair submarine cable with a total system capacity of 108 Tbps – or 18 Tbps per fiber pair. The undersea system will connect southwest of Iceland to Ballyloughane Strand in Galway, Ireland, a length of approximately 1700 km. The submarine network will link to another new system in Ireland to provide connectivity to the rest of Europe.
The submarine cable will be the third owned and operated by Farice, joining FARICE-1 and DANICE. It will enable the company, which is owned by the Icelandic government, with the ability to support route diversity. Farice says the desktop study for the project has been completed, as is marine survey work on Ireland’s continental shelf. The remaining survey works to Iceland are expected to finish this year. Meanwhile, SubCom will begin manufacture of the cable and equipment in Newington, NH, this year, with such work expected to continue through early 2022. This timetable will enable main lay installation operations to begin in Summer 2022.
“We are pleased to announce the contract in force for the IRIS undersea cable system, which we believe is an essential step for both the safety and security of Iceland. The system will also provide a new low-latency connection between Iceland and Dublin that will bring Iceland closer to one of the key network hubs in Europe. In essence, the system will be a digital bridge between Iceland and Ireland and could, as such, advance the use of green energy in Iceland for international digital processing needs,” commented Thorvardur Sveinsson, CEO of Farice. “Through our new IRIS system and existing DANICE system, a new North Atlantic Network route connecting Ireland, Iceland, and Denmark is open. Having worked in partnership with SubCom to deploy one of our existing cable systems, we are confident in their design, manufacturing, and installation capabilities and look forward to completing this highly impactful project.”
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