N0r5ke Viking

Overview

N0r5ke Viking is a domestic submarine cable system serving Norway, connecting multiple points along the Norwegian coastline. With a total length of 810 km, it operates entirely within Norwegian waters, providing intra-national connectivity across the western and central coastal regions. The cable is owned and operated by NOR5KE Fibre AS.

Route and Landings

N0r5ke Viking lands at 16 points along the Norwegian coast. These landing locations are: Åheim, Ålesund, Andalsnes, Bergen, Brekstad, Edøya, Florø, Herlandsvika, Hitra, Hyllestad, Kristiansund, Lefdal, Molde, Sture, Tjeldbergodden, and Trondheim. The landings span a broad stretch of western and central Norway, from Bergen in the south to Trondheim in the north, with numerous intermediate coastal and island communities served along the way.

Ownership and Operators

N0r5ke Viking is wholly owned by NOR5KE Fibre AS, a Norwegian fibre infrastructure company focused on delivering submarine connectivity along the Norwegian coast.

Status and Timeline

N0r5ke Viking became ready for service in 2022 and has been operational for approximately four years. It is currently in service.

Regional Context

Norway's submarine cable infrastructure spans 12 systems across 36 landing points, with an average cable length of around 1,045 km. At 810 km, N0r5ke Viking is longer than half of the cables operating in the same national corridor, placing it in the mid-range by length among Norwegian systems. Regional peers include cables of considerably different scale and purpose: Havfrue/AEC-2 extends 7,650 km as an international transatlantic system, while the Svalbard Undersea Cable System and Polar Circle Cable serve higher-latitude Norwegian territories. N0r5ke Viking 2, a closely related system of 900 km, is planned for service in 2028, and Eviny Digital provides a shorter 210 km domestic link that entered service in 2020. N0r5ke Viking is therefore one of the more substantial purely domestic coastal cables currently in service in the corridor.

Strategic Role

With 16 landing points distributed across Norway's western and central coastline, N0r5ke Viking provides direct submarine fibre connectivity to a dense concentration of Norwegian coastal communities and industrial sites, including locations such as Tjeldbergodden and Sture that are associated with Norwegian energy and industrial infrastructure. Its broad spread of landings across this stretch of coastline enables diverse onshore connectivity without reliance on a small number of aggregation points.