He 99% of international internet data traffic travels through fiber optic cables that run along the bottom of seas and oceans. There is a kind of Google Maps of underwater cables where you can see its trajectory to discover that, while there are areas that are true wastelands, in others there are tangles of cables that clump together. Precisely these areas are critical for potential accidents and attacks. Well, 90% of the capacity of the Europe-Asia cables happens through a region that is anything but calm: the Red Sea.
In times of peace these cables work well, but in conflicts they are a real candy for sabotage: they are “abandoned” to their fate in the middle of nowhere, they are strategic and repairing them is not exactly easy or convenient. And in fact, in the case of these Europe – Asia cables it has already happened: in 2024 a Houthi missile impact a cargo ship in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and its drifting anchor cut three underwater cables. Repair ships were able to enter four months later. In September 2025, history repeated itself. The Achilles heel is clear and Europe wants to solve it by detouring around the North Pole.
The alternative route: Polar Connect. The European Union, through its resilience panel, has recommended building two Arctic cables to reach Asia by avoiding the Red Sea: one would go through the Canadian Northwest Passage and the other would connect Scandinavia with Asia by directly crossing the North Pole. The latter is precisely the Polar Connect.
Said and done: the EU you have already labeled this cable as “Cable Project of European Interest” and has already prepared the first funds for its construction. The total estimated cost is around €2 billion and the operational goal is 2030. Behind the project is the Nordic research and education network NORDUnetNordic network operators such as GlobalConnect Carrier and the Swedish polar research agency. This summer probably they will do a study of the route.
Why is it important. Because submarine cables are the roads that keep the world in which we live connected: corporate communications, cloud services, finance, streaming, security… and the fact that the majority of connections between Europe and Asia occur through a corridor in persistent conflict increases the risk of blackouts between both continents. This cable seeks to minimize geopolitical risk while reducing latency in data transmission.
On the other hand, there is its strategic dimension: Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon now represent more than 70% of all submarine cable capacity consumed globally, compared to less than 10% a decade ago, according to TeleGeography data and GlobalData. Europe does not have any route of its own to Asia. How Polar Connect collects in your white paperthe three current options between Europe and Asia are the Red Sea, Russia or passing through the United States and none are under European sovereignty.
The two new cables to connect Europe and Asia via the Arctic route. NORDUnet
Context. The Red Sea and its surroundings have been an almost continuous hornet’s nest since at least the 1950s: the Suez crisis, the Six Day War, Yom Kippur… so as Roderick Beck, a cable industry veteran who is dedicated to finding telecommunications capacity for internet service providers, explains for The Verge: The industry looked for alternatives in the Persian Gulf, but it is not exactly an oil raft either: The United States attacks on Iran in 2025 also closed that route.
That said, the geopolitical context in the Arctic is not neutral either. Historically to run a cable through the arctic was necessary a partnership with Russia, but since the war with Ukraine, the North Pole corridor lacks of western intercontinental connectivity. However, it will not be easy: others have tried it before and failed, such as Quintillion on the north coast of Alaska. They activated a section of cable, but the ice broke it twice and to repair it it is necessary either to have an icebreaking ship to repair the cable or to wait until summer.
How do they want to do it?. He plan is connecting the Nordic region with Japan and South Korea via fiber optics under the Arctic Ocean with possible branches to North America. Regarding financing, at the end of 2024 were approved 44.6 million euros from the Connecting Europe Facility program for the first phases.
Polar Connect will also have with advanced sensors for environmental and climate monitoring, so that it would function as a telecommunications infrastructure and an Arctic scientific research instrument. The project is complemented by Far North Fiber, another Arctic cable that would take the Canadian Northwest Passage route. Together they would form a network with mutual redundancy: when one fails, the other takes over the traffic. As it says the CEO of NORDUnet himselfValter Nordh: “both routes have strengths and weaknesses, which is why they complement each other well.”
Yes, but. Designing, building and installing an underwater cable is not a small project, but the main problem that Polar Connect is going to face has already been glimpsed in the failed Quintillion project: the obstacle is maintenance. The ice cuts and the icebergs drag the seabed to depths greater than those that allow the cable to be buried in a phenomenon known as ice scour.
If there is a break in winter, we have to wait until summer to repair it simply because there are no ships capable of breaking ice and laying cables at the same time. Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, one of the leading research companies in the sector, he says it bluntly: “We’ve seen a lot of (Arctic cable) projects happen. There’s a reason for that, right? It’s very complicated.”
Cover | PxHere and Gemini
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