The Long, Arduous Plan to Lay a Trans-Arctic Internet Cable
Laying new a transoceanic internet cable is a massive undertaking—laying one across the Arctic especially so. Arctic Fibre has grand plans to venture across the ice and the unmapped ocean floors, threading a trans-Arctic cable to finally connect London and Tokyo directly.
Gozmondo.com tells how.
The trans-Arctic cable is perhaps our 21st-century realization of the Northwest Passage, a direct route from Europe to Asia that explorers have been searching for since the 18th century. The route didn't exist then, but it does now. Thanks to climate change, the Arctic is no longer frozen solid in the summer. That doesn't mean the Arctic can be called hospitable to humans or our ships though. Cable-laying ships will only be able operate without icebreakers for a limited window between August and October, complicating the whole operation.