Europe

Orange, Equitix and MDM form venture for Pisces cable linking Ireland and Europe

The proposed subsea route would run about 3,125 kilometers to France, Spain and Portugal. Deployment is planned for 2028; the cable is not in service.

Orange, infrastructure investor Equitix and Irish developer MDM announced a joint venture on October 14 to deliver Pisces, a subsea cable intended to connect Ireland directly to France, Spain and Portugal. The proposed route of about 3,125 kilometers and 16 fiber pairs would link Galway with Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, Sopelana and Carcavelos. Orange would build a new landing station at Sopelana. This is an announced project, not an operating connection. [1]

The European Commission had presented the route in March as an open-access system backed by the Connecting Europe Facility. The partners plan to offer dark fiber so different customers can contract capacity. The route would give Ireland a direct alternative to continental Europe without mandatory transit through the United Kingdom. Its actual resilience will depend on construction and the final interconnections. [1][2]

Orange says its Orange Marine and Elettra units completed a marine survey in August. Engineering and permits remain underway, and the partners expect to deploy the cable in 2028. The photograph shows Orange Marine’s René Descartes vessel in 2011: it is an archive image of the operator, not of the Pisces project. [1]

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