- Bulk Infrastructure proposes a 6,500-kilometer Norway-to-Montreal cable bypassing U.S. territory entirely.
- Costs exceed $620 million, with financing, customers, and route surveys still unresolved.
- Routing around U.S. territory does not guarantee independence from American networks downstream.
Norwegian infrastructure company Bulk Infrastructure is proposing a direct fiber cable from Norway to Canada, routed around the United States entirely. The project, named Leif Erikson, remains a proposal, not a construction announcement.
Canada currently has relatively few direct international cable options that avoid U.S. routing, a structural gap the project is designed to address. That context, combined with growing government interest in infrastructure resilience, gives the proposal its strategic weight.
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This seems like a good idea even from within the US, AND even if we imagine that this country was not giving the rest of the world reasons to keep their distance.
It seems to me it would make for a higher capacity, more resilient internet.
Yes please.
I think they should do it. Having an option that isn’t dependent on America’s ill will, is important if civilized nations are to have agency.
They also should make their own Starlink-ish constellation.
Europe and friends had benefited from a relative golden age of peace, using the peace dividend to invest in their civilian sectors. While it would be painful to invest in defense, the time has come to do so. It sucks, but the Dogey Confederates will abuse decent people if given an opening.
Europe does have their own Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb.
I am not sure how they compare, but it’s big enough to have global coverage according to Wikipedia.
To think that Canada is a needed connection is odd. It doesn’t have the population base or breadth of industry to justify this.
Redundancy is good.
Cool more intercontinental connections are needed. Today there are surprisingly few connections between Europe and North America which is sensitive if Russia decide to sabotage it.
There is also another major fiber project from Norway. That will go across the artic towards Japan and China, I think it would also connect to north America but I’m not sure if that was Alaska or Canada.
I’ll believe Europe is serious when they leave the 5 Eyes or kick out the US
The only European nation in the 5-eyes is Britain.
That said Canada too is part of the 5-eyes.
Maybe you’re thinking of one of the outer “eyes” organizations such as the 14-eyes, of which several other European countries are members.
probably. It’s still a compromised network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement#9_Eyes,_14_Eyes,_and_other_“third_parties”
Also important that it bypasses Britain (from were there are cables directly to Canada) since the Brits do digital surveillance on everything that goes through cables that land in Britain and give that data to the Americans, as shown in the Snowden Revelations.
since the Brits do digital surveillance on everything that goes through cables that land in Britain and give that data to the Americans
Sorry to break it to you… but ECHELON is a surveillance program operated by the signatories of the UKUSA Security Agreement… aka the Five Eyes… Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States. Canada is in that list spying for the group right alongside everyone else. Two of the intercept stations are located in Canada… CFS Leitrim (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) and CFB Gander (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada).
True.
It’s just that if that data doesn’t go via a different 5-eyes member nation then Canada can actually chose whether they want data going between Canada and Europe to be under surveillance and a copy getting sent to the US or not, whilst if it does they have no such choice.
Yes that’s important. I would also be happy to support more connectivity via Greenland and Iceland.
MACsec your WAN links.
Counterpoint: place a few hundred thousand wireless repeaters on buoys.
Serious answer: software encryption is a gazillion times cheaper than this. If however freedom from reliance on American infra is the goal, then I stand corrected.
Don’t need to know what’s in the traffic to block it. US govt has demonstrated willingness to cut off technology at critical points to try and get what it wants. So yeah I’m thinking it’s about infrastructure.
That’s like… Iran/China totalitarianism shit. 🤢🤮
I believe the goal is to get away from USA infrastructure. Canada is already looking at building additional internal infrastructure so that domestic traffic never goes south of the border.
All the software encryption in the world is useless if a deranged USA leader gives the order to stop traffic originating/going to Canada.
All the software encryption in the world is useless if a deranged USA leader gives the order to stop traffic originating/going to Canada. Tru.
Imagine the latency of a few hundred thousand repeaters
I’d rather not 🤣
Excellent idea.
How much maple syrup can flow through the pipe?
Can’t you just chew on the leaves to curb withdrawal symptoms?
Asking the real questions.
What’s the L/h on this removed?
YES! I want it. A way to get Canada closer to Europe… in preparation for them to join Schengen and the EEA
The syrup must flow.
Sorry, this is a data pipeline. Unless…
You wouldn’t download a plate of maple syrup
The new “oil”, filling sweet loving Euros with energy.
I can only see upsides with also adding some syrup pipelines next to the fiber cable.
Crude oil is just awful on pancakes for example, why do people even want to import all that yuck? SMHCanada does have the other kind too. Although a better use would be to take solar power through Europe from Northern Africa.
Just need superconducting power cables.
The great trans-Atlantic maple pipeline!
Slurp slurp The syrup our pancakes deserve.
I would totally use my Irish passport to get into Canada if they joined Shengen.
Faster connection between Frankfurt and Canadian stock exchanges, encrypted personal data being on EU and Canadian servers, lower ping for gamers, better teleconferencing for the 2 tier EU meetings, etc.
Seems like a win to me
Does it go all the way under the ocean or does it go through Faeroer Islands, Iceland, Greenland? Or maybe through Svalbard and Greenland
The undersea cables are all very vulnerable to hostile nation states. You all need satellites as well, although they are deploying satellite killers in orbit as we speak, the russians and the us, not sure what china is doing.
Basically any country with an air force and a ballistic missile program has satellite killers.
China has demonstrated the ability to shoot down satellites using a fighter loaded with medium range missiles.
China has also targeted our satellites with lasers, in a not so subtle hint that they could hit them with missiles the article said, 15 some years back.
We are going to be trapped on earth if we start satellite wars, as the space junk will make launching very dicey. Even a piece of satellite the size of a grain of rice can destroy a satellite because of the speeds involved, as I understand it.
Tbh I expect us to kessler ourselves in my lifetime.
Might actually be the thing that makes everyone care about climate change
The point is to protect comms during times of peace, not war.
We’ve (excluding the US,) been at peace for some time, and cables are getting cut left and right. Not even all recently, even 15 years back there were some suspicious ones out by Asia, forget the details, but Fox was up in arms about it.
Edit: What should be done, is to mass produce some gear to hook onto the cables or near them, to spy out sabotage attempts and give early warnings. Then scramble the warplanes.
Or even an electrical line, with flashpoints where if a diver or submarine drone gets near, they can send electricity through the water to incapacitate the threat.
