The Far North Fiber is a 17,000km submarine cable system linking Europe and Asia through the Arctic region, from Japan, via the Northwest Passage, to Europe with landings in the US (Alaska) and Canadian Arctic, Norway, Finland and Ireland.

The Far North Fiber project was initiated by Far North Digital, LLC (US Alaskan company), together with its Canadian affiliate True North Global Networks.

In December 2021, Cinia Ltd from Finland and Far North Digital LLC announced a joint effort to build the Far North Fiber subsea cable linking Asia and Europe. In Feburary 2022, Japanese ARTERIA Networks Corporation joined the consortium.

In October 2022, Far North Digital LLC, Cinia and Arteria formed a joint corporation Far North Fiber Inc. to develop and operate the project.

The Far North Fiber (FNF) cable system consists of 12 fiber pairs, with 10 FPs for express route and 2 FPs reserved for local add/drops, with design capacity up to 150Tbps:

• Express Spectrum: 60λ X 200G/FP = 12 Tbps/FP without regeneration.

• Add Drop Spectrum: 60λ X 250G/FP = 15 Tbps/FP with regeneration.

• Low Latency Express Capacity: 10FP x 12 Tbps/FP = 120 Tbps

• Local add/drop capacity: 2FP x 15 Tbps/FP = 30 Tbps

The Far North Fiber (FNF) cable system is projected to cost approximately CAD1.48 billion (or US$1.17 billion, or Euro 1 billion), supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), expected to be ready for service by the end of the year 2026. 

There is a similar project, Arctic Fiber, planned to connect Japan and Europe through Canadian Arctic, with its Alaska portion activated in 2017. Quintillion Subsea Holdings LLC (“Quintillion”) acquired the assets of Arctic Fibre in May 2016. Quintillion is now planning the Japan-Washington State Trans-Pacific Cable System (JAWS TPCS), the 2nd phase of its Arctic Fibre project.

There was also an attempt to build a trans-Arctic subsea cable linking Europe and Asia through the Northern Sea Route (NSR), the Arctic Connect project initiated by Cinia, in a partnership with Russian operation MegaFon and others. The Arctic Connect project was suspended in May 2021, for further feasibility assessment.