The Havhingsten cable system is a 940km submarine cable system connecting the UK to the Nordics, with landings in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Blackpool and Newcastle in England, and Denmark.

The Havhingsten cable system is jointly owned, developed and operated by Aqua Comms, Bulk Fiber Networks and Meta (Facebook), supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). 

Aqua Comms rebrands its ownership in the Havhingsten cable system as CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) via the Irish Sea and North Sea Connect (NSC) connecting the UK and Denmark.

The Havhingsten cable system is the world’s first aluminum conductor powered subsea cable system. The removal of traditional copper raw material, and replacement with aluminum from the manufacturing process, benefits the overall system in efficiency and cost reduction, as copper is associated with variable availability and higher price. Additional benefits include improved resistance to hydrogen penetration, an element which is unfavorable to the operation of optical fiber in ocean waters. Furthermore, as a conductor, aluminum allows for a much lower cable voltage drop, which allows for a higher number of FPs per cable. That makes aluminum a solid option to increase the number of FPs per cable.

The Havhingsten cable system combines data transmission seamlessly across both an unrepeatered subsea segment in the Irish Sea, a terrestrial segment in the UK and a repeatered segment in the North Sea. Typical systems have one or two of these elements, but not all three. The system used an enhanced, jet-assisted burial plough in the North and Irish Sea segments, allowing installers to bury the cable to specific depths in very challenging seabed conditions.

The Havhingsten cable system was ready for service in March 2022.