KetchCan1 Submarine Fiber Cable System

Overview

The KetchCan1 Submarine Fiber Cable System is a short regional cable spanning 167 km between Canada and the United States. It connects the coast of British Columbia, Canada, with southeastern Alaska, United States, serving the cross-border corridor between these two neighboring territories along the Pacific Northwest coastline.

Route and Landings

In Canada, the cable lands at Prince Rupert, British Columbia. In the United States, it lands at Ketchikan, Alaska. These two landing points define the full extent of the system.

Ownership and Operators

The KetchCan1 system is owned solely by Ketchikan Public Utilities, the municipal utility serving Ketchikan, Alaska. As a publicly owned utility operator, Ketchikan Public Utilities manages this cable as part of the regional infrastructure it provides to its service area.

Status and Timeline

The cable entered service in 2020 and has been operational for approximately six years. No end-of-service date has been announced.

Regional Context

At 167 km, KetchCan1 is a short-haul system by any measure. It is longer than only 5% of the other cables touching Canada and the United States in this corridor, reflecting its highly localized scope compared to transoceanic systems such as the Southern Cross Cable Network, GlobeNet, and the Asia-America Gateway Cable System, which each extend tens of thousands of kilometers and serve intercontinental connectivity needs. KetchCan1 serves a distinctly different purpose: a direct, short link between two closely situated communities on opposite sides of the Canada–US border in the Pacific Northwest.

Measured performance over the last 60 days, based on 61 ping tests, shows an average round-trip latency of 30.6 ms, with a best recorded figure of 24.1 ms. These figures are consistent with the cable's short physical length and its role as a direct regional connection.

Strategic Role

KetchCan1 provides a direct submarine fiber link between Prince Rupert, BC, and Ketchikan, AK — two coastal communities separated by open water with no practical terrestrial alternative. Owned and operated by a municipal utility, the cable reflects a locally driven approach to connecting communities in a geographically challenging region of the Pacific Northwest, where distance by sea is far shorter than by land.