Svalbard Undersea Cable System

The Svalbard Undersea Cable System is a twin submarine communications cable which connects Svalbard to the mainland of Norway. The two optical fiber cable consist of two segments, from Harstad to Breivika in Andøy, and from Breivika to Hotellneset near Longyearbyen in Svalbard. The segments from Harstad to Breivika are 74 and 61 kilometers (46 and 38 mi) long, respectively, and the segments from Breivika to Hotellneset 1,375 and 1,339 kilometers (854 and 832 mi). Each consists of eight fiber pairs and there are installed twenty optical communications repeaters on each segment. Each segment has a speed of 10 gigabits per second (Gb/s), with a future potential capacity of 2,500 Gbit/s. The system is now the sole telecommunications link to the archipelago.

Planning of the cables started in 2002 by the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC), who wanted increased bandwidth to expand their business at Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat). At the time all telecommunications from Svalbard were relayed via communications satellite. Financing was secured through a deal with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The cable system was supplied by Tyco Communications and laying of the cable was carried out by Global Marine Systems in July and August 2003.

Svalbard was chosen for the location of SvalSat because of its high latitude which allows all satellites in a low Earth orbit with an orbit above 500 kilometers (310 mi) to use only a single ground station, yet allow downloading from every orbit. SvalSat opened on 15 April 1999. It was established as a cooperation between NASA and NS. However, the ground station's capacity was limited by its broadband capacity. Transmission took place via a 55-Mbit/s connection via Intelsat, which served the archipelago's needs within telephone and Internet connection.

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