Facebook-owner Meta has completed its first subsea data cable using an aluminium conductor rather than copper.

The Havingsten subsea cable system runs from Ireland to Denmark and uses a combination of non-repeated and multi-segment links for the optical fibres, with the repeaters powered by the aluminium conductor.

Meta worked with Aqua Comms and Bulk Fibre Networks as well as Alcatel Submarine Networks on the cable system. This runs across the Irish Sea from north of Dublin, Ireland to south of Blackpool on the west coast of the UK, with a section also linking into the Isle of Man. The cable then runs across UK to Seaton Sluice in Northumberland, then under the sea to Denmark.

The new route provides a more resilient network architecture options for enterprises, carriers and hyperscalers while reducing the latency of connections between Dublin and the Nordic region.

Using an aluminium conductor reduces costs and gives improved resistance to hydrogen penetration, an element which is unfavourable to the operation of optical fibre in ocean waters.

The end-to-end system also ensures data is transmitted seamlessly across an unrepeatered subsea segment in the Irish Sea, the terrestrial segment in the UK and a repeatered segment in the North Sea. Typical systems have one or two of these elements, but not all three.