Survey Work Starts on New Subsea Fibre Cable Between UK and Denmark

Long-haul fibre company Midgard Infra (formerly Altibox Carrier) has begun the process of surveying the seabed ahead of deploying a new 630km long high-capacity subsea fibre optic cable – VERENA – to help link the United Kingdom with Denmark, which is expected to boost broadband and network data connectivity with Europe.

The cable itself, which will run between Scarborough (England) and Esbjerg (Denmark), is said to feature 16 fibre pairs capable of 512Tbps (Terabits per second) in total design data capacity to help handle surging international and AI traffic demands across the North Sea.

The survey work for this will take place across summer 2026, which it’s hoped should reduce the negative impacts of stormy weather – the sort that tends to be more common when surveying during the autumn to winter months. All being well, the new cable should then be laid and become fully Ready for Service (RFS) in the fourth quarter of 2028.

Delivery of the Verena programme is being led end-to-end by JTD Associates, while the survey activities are being delivered in partnership with Pelagian acting as Engineering Consultants, and XOCEAN, utilising their fleet of advanced Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs) to conduct offshore data acquisition.

The use of USVs supports a more sustainable and cheaper approach to offshore data acquisition through lower fuel consumption, reduced emissions and simplified offshore logistics compared with traditional survey operations.

Survey data collected will enable the project team to:

➤ Identify the safest and most resilient route alignment.

➤ Understand seabed conditions and burial requirements to maximise long-term system protection.

➤ Safely manage interactions with existing offshore infrastructure including telecommunications cables, power assets and pipelines.

➤ Support environmental and regulatory approvals.

➤ Improve installation efficiency and reduce intervention requirements over the operational life of the system.

Espen Vestli, Chief Operating Officer, Midgard Infra, said:

“The North Sea presents a complex operating environment, and high-quality survey data is fundamental to reducing risk before installation begins. The survey programme will provide the detailed seabed and route intelligence needed to support informed engineering decisions, optimise system design and ensure Verena is delivered to the highest standards of resilience and reliability.”

Regular readers will no doubt note that this is only the latest in a string of recent subsea cable announcements, including the new AUÐUR cable between the UK and Iceland (here), as well as the IOEMA Fibre project that will connect the UK with Northern Europe (here). Not to mention others, like 2Africa (here). Several other subsea links have also been proposed, such as a new one to link with Shetland (here).

The UK Government has at the same time also proposed “tougher fines and prison sentences” for those who damage subsea infrastructure essential for UK broadband access and trade, with a consultation planned to take place later this year (here).