- IOEMA-1 connects five nations through a high-capacity subsea infrastructure network
- The APTelecom partnership strengthens the commercial strategy for Northern European cable deployment
- The European Union classifies IOEMA-1 as a strategic digital infrastructure project
European consortium IOEMA 1 Holding has announced a strategic partnership with consultancy APTelecom to advance a petabit-class undersea cable system.
This planned 24-fibre-pair network will span around 1,600 kilometers across five northern European nations, with the aim of connecting digital hubs in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway and the UK.
The consortium expects this submarine cable system to be ready for use during the first quarter of 2029.
Japanese companies NEC and NTT have already successfully tested a revolutionary submarine cable technology using 12-core multicore fiber, which packs twelve optical signal transmission paths within a standard outer diameter optical fiber.
Existing submarine cables typically rely on single-core fiber with only one transmission path.
The Japanese team transmitted hundreds of terabits over a staggering distance of 7,280 kilometers, using a sophisticated algorithm that solves the interference problem known as crosstalk between neighboring cores.
NEC developed a demodulation algorithm using MIMO technology to accurately separate overlapping signals, and NTT simultaneously created a coupled multicore fiber transmission line that controls signal delay non-uniformity.
Similarly, Meta is building subsea infrastructure across the globe to move information to billions of daily users.
The company employs submarine cable systems engineers who work end-to-end on these massive projects.
Their responsibilities span capacity planning, route design, marine surveys, production oversight and implementation strategy.
More than 95% of intercontinental Internet traffic runs on undersea cable systems today, and reliability is not optional for a company operating on Meta’s massive scale.
The company is pursuing Project Waterworth, which would be the world’s longest undersea cable system.
Each of these efforts faces different technical and financial hurdles on its own timeline.
The Japanese technology has been successfully demonstrated, but full commercial rollout remains unproven at scale, and European infrastructure projects often face regulatory delays that push target dates several years beyond initial estimates.
Meta has not publicly committed to a specific completion date or petabit capacity for Waterworth.
The explosion of artificial intelligence demand for bandwidth is real and urgent for operators, but submarine cables typically take five to seven years from planning to actual operation underwater.
Subsea cable development
The European Union has recognized this cable as a project of European interest under its Connecting Europe Facility.
“Partnering with APTelecom brings further deep expertise and broad market access at an important time in IOEMA’s development of our first cable system, IOEMA-1,” said Andrew Parsons, Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer at IOEMA.
APTelecom says it will contribute advisory expertise in operator engagement, infrastructure strategy and market strategy.
“IOEMA-1 is a strategically important project that addresses the growing demand for robust, high-capacity connections across Northern Europe,” said Sean Bergin, president of APTelecom.
“We are delighted to support the team in engaging the market and driving the project towards successful delivery.
Via Subsea Cables
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