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Laying of transarctic cable communication line began in Murmansk region
Sunday, August 7, 2022
The first four kilometers of cable were laid in Teriberka in the coastal zone using horizontal drilling
MURMANSK August 6 /TASS/. The cable laying vessel began its work on laying the transarctic main underwater fiber-optic communication line (VOLS) Murmansk - Vladivostok of the Polar Express project in the village of Teriberka, Murmansk Region, on the banks of the Barents Sea. This was announced on Friday by the general director of the company "Perspective Technologies Agency" (JSC "PTA" - the chief performer of the project) Alexey Strelchenko.
Today we are starting deep-sea work on laying fiber optic cable in the Barents Sea. The exit point is located at the coastal station in Teriberka, then work will take place in the Barents Sea eastward, "Strelchenko said.
The head of the company also explained that earlier the specialists of "PTA" laid the first four kilometers of cable in Teriberka in the coastal zone using horizontal drilling, today they will connect the laid cable with the deep sea. The entire cable is laid with a depth of up to one and a half meters to protect the cable from trawling and anchoring ships. The first batch of cable, about 400 km, manufactured at the newly opened “PTA” factory, was loaded on Thursday, August 5, on a cable laying vessel that can lay over 12 kilometers of cable in a day. In total, nine vessels will participate in the laying of VOLS: four survey vessels, three support vessels and two cable laying Northern Wave and Yauza.
The first line of the Teriberk-Amderma Polar Express project is due to be launched next year. A special coastal station with the necessary equipment in Murmansk region (in Teriberka) has already been built. "Now the construction of such a base is underway in Amderma (Nenets Autonomous Region), where we plan to try deploying wind generators as an alternative energy source," explained “PTA” general director of the Office of Advanced Technologies.
The Transarctic Underwater Fiber Link Project, called Polar Express, will lay 12,650 km of cable of six pairs of optical fibers with a capacity of up to 104 TBps. The cost of the project is estimated at 65 billion rubles. A whole fleet of cable, auxiliary and research vessels will be used to lay the line. The project implementation period is 2026.
The shortest fiber line between Europe and Asia will be an alternative to satellite communication in the northern latitudes, will provide reliable and accessible communication and fast Internet in the Russian Arctic. The Polar Express is designed to provide a digital component of the development of the Northern Sea Route, its port infrastructure, as well as oil and gas and environmental projects in the Arctic. The project was announced at the Transport of Russia exhibition in November last year and is being implemented by order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation with the support of Rosmorrechflot, Rosmorport and Morsviazsputnik.
