Undersea cables from Ireland to continent will strengthen digital connection 'for decades'

Underwater cables connecting Ireland to France, Spain, and Portugal will be in place within two years and strengthen Ireland's digital connections for "decades", the Irish developer of the project says.

Underwater cables connecting Ireland to France, Spain, and Portugal will be in place within two years and strengthen Ireland's digital connections for "decades", the Irish developer of the project says.

Irish company MDM has agreed a joint venture with global investment group Equitix and communications giant Orange to deliver the €180m Pisces subsea cable system connecting Ireland to the continent, as an alternative to transit through the United Kingdom. The Pisces cable will stretch 3,125 km with 16 fibre pairs connecting Galway, Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez (France), and Sopelana (Spain) where a new landing station will be built by Orange and Carcavelos (Portugal).

The cable is expected to be deployed in 2028.  The project has received significant funding from the EU through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) including €18.9m awarded by the Government in December. 

"With the support of the European Union, we are proud to see that collective effort bring the project to this important milestone. We look forward to delivering a cable system that will strengthen Ireland's connections with continental Europe for decades to come," said Tom McMahon, MDM co-founder and managing director.  "Pisces reflects years of hard work and close collaboration with Orange and Equitix, underpinned by a shared commitment to engineering excellence."

The marine survey for the route, conducted by Elettra Tlc and Orange Marine, subsidiaries of Orange was completed in August. Engineering and permitting processes are now underway. Deployment preparations are progressing, with the cable expected to be deployed during 2028.

The cable will interconnect with existing transatlantic and international systems.

Valérie Cussac, CEO Orange Wholesale International said subsea infrastructure along the Atlantic coast will backbone Europe's AI-driven future. "Pisces reflects this commitment, connecting Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal to reinforce trust across the continent while powering the AI highways that will support sustainable, inclusive growth for generations."

The marine survey for the route, conducted by Elettra Tlc and Orange Marine, subsidiaries of Orange, was completed in August.  Deployment preparations are progressing, with the cable expected to be deployed during 2028.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is also an anchor investor in the project. It is envisaged the Pisces cable could connect to Narwhal 1 and 2, two transatlantic undersea cables connecting Ireland to the US announced in August and under development by MDM as part of a $500m investment.

The Pisces project is one of a number of subsea infrastructure projects linking Ireland to Europe, the UK, and US. Amazon is developing a cable called Fastnet, which will link West Cork with Maryland on the US east coast.  Once operational, it will deliver more than 320 Tbps of capacity via 16 fibre pairs, enough to stream roughly 12.5 million HD videos at once.

Meanwhile Celtic Interconnector Project which will link the electricity grids of Ireland and France, allowing the exchange of 700MW of power, equal to powering 450,000 homes.