Altibox Carrier is planning to deploy a new subsea cable in the North Sea to connect the UK and mainland Europe.

The company this week announced Verena, a new 630-kilometer subsea cable system linking the UK and Denmark.

Set to land in Scarborough in the UK and Esbjerg in Denmark, the system is scheduled to be ready-for-service in Q4 2028.

“Altibox’s ambition is to become the leading provider of network infrastructure and managed services in the Nordics. The announcement of Verena is a major step toward that goal,” added Svein Arild Ims, CEO of Altibox Carrier. “Traffic in and out of the Nordic region is projected to surge in the coming years. The number of existing and planned data centers has grown exponentially, and the AI-driven expansion of hyperscalers is pushing today’s subsea cables to their limits.”

Verena will comprise 16 fiber pairs and is named in honor of Verena Holmes, the English engineer credited with advancing early mechanical and electrical engineering in the UK.

The company said Verena has been made possible through a strategic acquisition, with Altibox Carrier acquiring 100 percent of Woodstock Cable Ltd, a UK-based digital infrastructure company that “played a key role in the project’s initial development.”

Altibox Carrier has appointed JTD Associates, with partners Pelagian (an OEG Company) and Cecon Contracting, to manage the overall program. The wet plant will be supplied by Xtera.

Co-owned by Lyse and HitecVision, Altibox Carrier provides international connectivity and data services across the Nordics and Europe.

The company operates the NO-UK subsea cable between Norway and the UK and the Skagen Fiber West cable between Norway and Denmark, as well as a terrestrial network.

Only one cable currently links the UK to Denmark. The Havhingsten/North Sea Connect (NSC) system, linking Newcastle to Houstrup, was deployed in 2022 by a consortium of Aqua Comms, Bulk Infrastructure, and Meta. The upcoming IOMEA system will also link the two countries to Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany.

No subsea cables currently land in Scarborough, a North Yorkshire town on the UK's east coast. The nearest landing point is further north in Newcastle.

Houstrup and Blåbjerg, some 40km north of Esbjerg, currently land four cables between them, with the upcoming IOMEA system also set to land in Blåbjerg.