Emerald Bridge Fibres

Overview

Emerald Bridge Fibres is a short-haul submarine cable spanning 120 km across the Irish Sea, connecting Ireland and the United Kingdom. The system serves the bilateral corridor between these two neighbouring countries, providing a direct link across one of Europe's busiest inter-island maritime routes.

Route and Landings

In Ireland, the cable lands at Clonshaugh, a well-established cable landing station located north of Dublin. In the United Kingdom, the cable comes ashore at Holyhead, on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. The two landing points are separated by approximately 120 km of submarine cable across the Irish Sea.

Ownership and Operators

Emerald Bridge Fibres is owned by Zayo, a US-based fibre and network infrastructure provider with an extensive European presence. As the sole owner, Zayo operates the system independently rather than as part of a consortium arrangement.

Status and Timeline

The cable entered service in 2012 and has been operational for approximately 14 years. It continues to provide connectivity between its two landing points in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Regional Context

The Ireland–United Kingdom corridor hosts a substantial number of submarine cable systems. Ireland is served by 14 submarine cables landing at 12 points across the country, while the United Kingdom is connected by 42 cables reaching 105 landing points. Within this corridor, Emerald Bridge Fibres is a comparatively short system, measuring longer than only 17% of the 36 other cables touching the same countries. Many of the corridor's other cables, such as EXA North and South, 2Africa, and Apollo, are intercontinental systems spanning thousands of kilometres; Emerald Bridge Fibres, by contrast, is a dedicated intra-regional link purpose-built for the Ireland–UK crossing.

Measured performance over the last 60 days, based on 122 ping tests, shows an average round-trip latency of 47.3 ms, with a best recorded figure of 20.2 ms. These figures reflect the cable's short physical span across the Irish Sea.

Strategic Role

By linking Clonshaugh in Ireland directly to Holyhead in Wales, Emerald Bridge Fibres provides a dedicated submarine path between two countries with deep economic and communications ties. Its relatively compact length and single-owner structure make it a straightforward point-to-point connection within a corridor that is otherwise dominated by longer, multi-owner international systems.