Microsoft Planning Its First Irish Sea Cables - The SOBR2 Project

Microsoft has applied for several maritime usage licenses to do ship surveys of proposed routes for new subsea cables connecting Ireland to the UK. Its SOBR2 cable will connect Ireland to Wales as opposed to the usual Cornwall landings. It will apparently land at Malahide Beach and/or Portmarnock on the Irish side. It is not clear to me whether the intent is to branch the cable or whether there are two landing options. Details are sparse on the cable itself. My educated guess would be a 96 pair unrepeatered cable because it minimizes capex and maximizes bandwidth punch with such systems easily handling a couple petabits per second.

The site survey will focus on the top three meters of the sea floor. It will take samples to ascertain the texture and composition of material with an eye towards a deep burial of the cable itself. The samples will help determine not only burial depth but also how well armoured the cable will be. The Irish Sea is notorious for fibre cuts due to fishing. The Sea is heavily trafficked. 


The second map shows just how packed the Irish Sea has become. The proposed survey area intersects with five existing subsea cables four of which are in service. The repeatered Hibernia cable dates from 2001. The Emerald Bridge cable is owned by Zayo and ESB Telecoms, the fibre optic subsidiary of Ireland's power company. It was RFS in 2012. Both ESAT 2 (BT) and Sirius South (Virgin Media) date from 2000.



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