CANTAT-3 was the third

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

transatlantic telecommunications cable, in regular operation from 1994 to 2010, carrying 3 x 2.5 Gbit/s between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. It branches to both

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

and the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

.Farice: The background of the FARICE-1 cable
/ref> It is out of normal service for international bandwidth and is currently operated by Føroya Tele to service oil platforms in the North Sea.

Landing Points

The landing points are: # Pennant Point,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

(defunct since 2010) #

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyj ...

Tjørnuvík Tjørnuvík ( da, Tjørnevig) is the northernmost village on Streymoy in Sunda Municipality, Faroe Islands. As of the 2006 census, the population has a total of 71 people. The town uses the Stakkur sea stack for sheep grazing, accessed by cable ...

# Redcar,

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, UK (defunct) # Blaabjerg,

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

Sylt Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

#Valdemar Oil Platforms,

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

(connected in 2012)

History

ANTAT-3_is_the_only_NL-16_laser_regenerative_2.5_Gig/s_submarine_system_built_in_the_world._Part_of_this_huge_system_was_built_at_STC_Submarine_Networks,_Portland,_Oregon,_United_States.html" ;"title="Portland,_Oregon.html" ;"title="ANTAT-3 is the only NL-16 laser regenerative 2.5 Gig/s submarine system built in the world. Part of this huge system was built at STC Submarine Networks, Portland, Oregon">ANTAT-3 is the only NL-16 laser regenerative 2.5 Gig/s submarine system built in the world. Part of this huge system was built at STC Submarine Networks, Portland, Oregon, United States">USA, from 1993-1994 (which later became Alcatel Submarine Networks). STC Submarine Networks in Southampton, Hampshire, UK. made the rest of the system. The Canadian portion (shore end system) was laid off

by the

Teleglobe VSNL International Canada or Tata Communications (Canada) ULC (formerly Teleglobe) is an international telco carrier. The company is a subsidiary of Tata Communications, part of India's Tata Group and based in Montreal, Quebec. Part of their r ...

cable ship CS John Cabot. The main-lay portion was deployed off Nova Scotia towards the Faroes on board the

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...

ship Global Mariner. Other cable ships were involved in the completion of this system. This was the northernmost cable system ever deployed at the time. CANTAT-3 was operated by

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. On December 17, 2006, CANTAT-3 services were disrupted due to damage to the

submarine cable Submarine cable is any electrical cable that is laid on the seabed, although the term is often extended to encompass cables laid on the bottom of large freshwater bodies of water. Examples include: *Submarine communications cable *Submarine power ...

, resulting in degradation of service to hundreds of thousands of users connecting via internet and media providers (

Síminn Síminn hf. (Iceland Telecom), previously named ''Landssíminn'' and ''Póstur og Sími,'' is an Icelandic telecommunications company. It offers communication services for both private and corporate clients, including mobile (2G/3G/4G/5G), landline ...

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

and Hive). The country was however backed up by the second submarine cable, FARICE-1 The most notable effect of the event was a temporary shut-down of data communications by Iceland's universities and hospitals, which relied exclusively on CANTAT-3's services. Although it was predicted that a full recovery of the cable would take ten days, starting from midnight on January 13, 2007, it actually took until July 29, 2007 before service was fully restored. During that time, the Icelandic universities and hospitals in

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nickn ...

and

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

relied on emergency connectivity obtained via local internet providers

and

. The Icelandic government decided not to buy extra bandwidth for the university network through the functioning FARICE-1 cable, despite being a large shareholder in FARICE-1. Given that CANTAT-3 suffered multiple interruptions, the alternative cables FARICE-1, DANICE and Greenland Connect were established and/or expanded to ensure cabled telecommunication connectivity in Iceland. CANTAT-3 also had too little capacity by 2007 for domestic Internet usage, and became outdated as soon as the DANICE cable came into operation by 2009.

Current Use

Føroya Tele (Faroese Telecom) took over ownership and operation of the cable in 2012 to service

oil platforms An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

in the

. As of 2022, CANTAT-3 is still in use and is powered from Iceland and connected to the Faroe Islands, Germany, Denmark and Valdemar Oil Platforms. Given its obselete bandwidth capacity, providing service to oil platforms is the currently the primary function of CANTAT-3. The transatlantic portion as well as the spur to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

is no longer in operation and has not been replaced.

Notes

References

The Iceland Basin, -Topography and Oceanographic Features-, Svend-Aage Malmberg, Marine Research Institute, Reykjavík 2004.
Accessed 13 January 2006. Map of CANTAT-3 cable route on p13.

External links

2003 Nordunet Annual ConferenceTeleGeography.com: ''New submarine cable to dramatically increase Iceland's data transmission capacity'', Monday, 9 February 2004Islands of Resilience: Comparative Model for Energy, Connectivity and Jurisdiction - Realizing European ICT possibilities through a case study of Iceland
Accessed 30 January 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cantat-3 Infrastructure completed in 1994 Submarine communications cables in the North Atlantic Ocean Submarine communications cables in the North Sea Transatlantic communications cables 1994 establishments in Nova Scotia 1994 establishments in Europe 2010 disestablishments in Nova Scotia 2010 disestablishments in Europe