TELE Greenland, Eastlink, Hibernia Atlantic ponder Icelandic low-latency route

TELE Greenland, Eastlink, and Hibernia Atlantic have revealed their plans for a low latency network connection between New York City and Landeyajasandur, Iceland. The proposed route would combine TELE Greenland’s Greenland Connect cable, network facilities owned and operated in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia by Eastlink; and Hibernia Atlantic links from Halifax to New York. The result could remove up to 1100 km from the existing path between the two points, which would significantly lower latency, the three operators say.

The project would require modifications to the Greenland Connect undersea cable system, which connects Europe and Halifax, Nova Scotia, via Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. The new route would modify Greenland Connect from Landeyajasandur, Iceland to Milton, Newfoundland via Nuuk, Greenland, through the deployment of branching units and a new, more direct connection between those branching units.

"Eastlink has a high-capacity fiber network in place that links Milton, Newfoundland to Halifax, Nova Scotia,” says Lee Bragg, Eastlink CEO. “This network gives us the ability to further expand to meet the growth in requirement on this leg of the route."

“Hibernia Atlantic has the engineering experience to ensure the new cable build linking Iceland to the United States will offer the latest in technology,” states Frank Gabriel, wholesale manager of TELE Greenland “This project will help further economic development and growth in the region and continue our heritage of providing core IT infrastructure to support the region’s communications.”

“This modified Icelandic route looks to shorten the existing physical path, therefore lowering its current latency by over 10 ms round trip,” states Bjarni Thorvardarson, CEO for Hibernia Atlantic. “Through utilizing Hibernia Atlantic and Eastlink’s existing and planned networks, a direct connection into New York can be established providing access to a direct fiber cable system. The research we develop together with TELE Greenland and Eastlink will help us determine the most efficient and reliable route for optimal latency.”