Amazon plans for a subsea cable connecting Cork to the US

17 Jan 2025

Image: © katestudio/Stock.adobe.com

The proposed survey area spans 16,880 sq km off the coast of Co Cork.

In a filing with Ireland’s Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA), Amazon has revealed plans for a transatlantic subsea telecommunications cable connecting Castlefreke, Co Cork, to an unconfirmed location on the east coast of the US.

Amazon MCS Ireland, in the application filed in June 2024, requested a three-year licence starting in 2025 to conduct geophysical survey and site investigations for the fibre optic cable, which it said would take a maximum of eight months to conclude once commenced.

Although Amazon has not officially announced its plans for the cable, the application for the survey was reported by Rodrick Beck’s Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure blog, while on 11 January, public notices regarding the project were published in the Irish Examiner and The Southern Star.

According to McMahon Design & Management, an infrastructure project management company who submitted the application for Amazon, the survey would include collecting data on the seabed surface, any potential geohazards or man-made hazards to the cable and any potential “sensitive” marine habitats to avoid during investigations.

The application, which is still being considered by the maritime regulator, is seeking a licence to survey an area spanning 16,880 sq km off the coast of Co Cork, which, according to the species risk assessment report potentially impacts nearly 30 species of whales and dolphins – some of which have an “unknown” conservation status.

Moreover, the company said that the proposed route passes through known cod nursery and haddock spawning grounds, however, argued that since the cod and haddock grounds span the majority of the Irish coastline, the survey works will not be of “specific importance” to the species.

According to the plan, the survey will assess two potentials sites for landfall in Little Island Strand and Long Strand close to Rosscarbery. Although, the company said that no vehicles or equipment will go through the beach sand dune system.

There is high demand for telecommunications connectivity in Ireland. According to data from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, digital infrastructure demand – which refers to the demand generated by data centres – accounts for 99.8pc of the total international telecoms connectivity demand in the country, with hyperscale data centres owned by multinationals such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft accounting for 79pc of the estimated digital infrastructure asset demand in 2023.

And the acceleration of subsea projects puts Ireland in an incredibly strong position in terms of digital infrastructure.

While Amazon hasn’t received its licence yet, Microsoft is currently conducting geophysical surveys and site investigations for three of its own proposed subsea fibre optic cables in Ireland, with landfalls in Portmarnock, Dublin Port and Kilmore Quay in Wexford.

In 2022, a new subsea cable system called Havhingsten, developed by Dublin’s Aqua Comms and Meta, was completed, connecting Ireland with the Nordic region and the UK.

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Suhasini Srinivasaragavan is a sci-tech reporter for Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com