Tyco Telecommunications' 2,800-km undersea system to connect mainland Norway with island of Svalbard

23 April 2003 Morristown, NJ Lightwave -- Undersea telecommunications systems supplier Tyco Telecommunications Inc., business unit of Tyco Electronics, has been selected by a subsidiary of the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) to supply the Svalbard Undersea Cable System linking the island of Svalbard with mainland Norway.

At 78 ° North latitude, Svalbard is in close proximity to the North Pole and is, therefore, ideally situated for collecting data from polar orbiting satellites. The Svalbard Undersea Cable System will enable the real-time transmission of data collected from these satellites by earth stations located on Svalbard. The system design will also provide enhanced reliability for data communications and support any future upgrades of transmission capacity, explain Tyco representatives. Initially, the system will support data collected from polar orbiting satellites owned by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (IPO/NOAA). At a later stage, the system is intended to support other space, meteorological, and environmental organizations worldwide.

The undersea system will consist of two diversely routed fiber-optic segments with a total route length of 2,800 km. The landing points for the system will be Hotellneset, Svalbard and Harstad, Norway. Tyco Telecommunications will initially configure the system with 40 Gbits/sec of transmission capacity. However, the system design will enable NSC to upgrade transmission capacity to over 1280 Gbits/sec. Given the pressing needs for enhancing communications capabilities to and from Svalbard, the system is targeted to be in service by the end of this calendar year.