Svalbard Undersea Cable System

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).

Later that year the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System selected Helsinki over Svalbard for its ground station, largely because of the former's connection to the fiber network.

NSC was in October offered various prices between US$30 and 40 million for the laying of a single fiber cable.

Bringing the line out from Andøya was selected because it is the only trawler-free area along the Norwegian coast north of Trondheim.

[4] Tyco Communications was announced as the winner on 7 March and negotiations were finalized on 14 April, as a turnkey contract on the condition that the cable could be financed.

The main difficulty was that NSC, a foundation, had very little equity, and spent most of its cash on a US$300,000 detailed study for Tyco to advance the planning.

Hannon Armstrong was selected as a financial partner and the money was guaranteed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The first work took place at Breivika: the land-owner was contacted on 7 May, a sales agreement was signed on 13 May, permits were finalized on 23 May, construction started the next day and the NOK 5-million facility was completed on 25 July.

[4] The fiber cable system runs from Harstad via Breivika on the island of Andøya to Hotellneset on Svalbard.

The cables are equipped with an ocean ground protection panel to provide isolation and thus hinder damage from lightning.

[3] If it is necessary to pick up the cables, the power feed equipment can send a 4 to 5 hertz sine wave through the high-voltage output, which can be detected on the seabed.

[3] The Svalbard undersea cable system connecting the archipelago to the mainland was unexpectedly severed in January 2022.