Aurora: a regional submarine cable in the Baltic Sea
Aurora is a submarine telecommunications cable owned by GlobalConnect, spanning approximately 500 km and connecting multiple landing points across Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. It is listed as in service and recorded in the GeoCables database as ready for service (RFS) in 2024. However, public information about its design capacity, fiber pair count, supplier, and specific technological features remains undisclosed, leaving certain technical aspects of the cable ambiguous.
Aurora's network of landing points is notable for its extensive coverage of the Baltic region, including strategic locations such as
Sassnitz in Germany and
Visby in Sweden. This configuration suggests its role in facilitating regional connectivity, though the exact scale and scope of its traffic remain uncertain due to the lack of publicly available capacity data.
Quick facts
| Cable name | Aurora |
| Length | 500 km |
| Ready for service (RFS) | 2024 (GeoCables database value) |
| Owners | GlobalConnect |
| Status | In service |
| Design capacity | Not disclosed |
| Fiber pairs | Not disclosed |
| Supplier | Not disclosed |
| Technology | Not disclosed |
| Landing points | Borbby Strandbad (Sweden), Brondby (Denmark), Byxelkrok (Sweden), Farosund (Sweden), Hasle (Denmark), Klagshamn (Sweden), Näsby (Sweden), Rønne (Denmark), Sassnitz (Germany), Tejn (Denmark), Uto (Sweden), Visby (Sweden) |
🗺 Show Aurora on the interactive cable map
Route
Aurora connects a dozen landing points across Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, forming a dense regional network in the Baltic Sea. Key Swedish landings include Visby, Uto, and Farosund, while Danish landings include Brondby, Hasle, Rønne, and Tejn. Sassnitz, located on the German island of Rügen, serves as the sole German landing point. This corridor links several islands and coastal towns, likely supporting regional data exchange and connectivity between these countries.
Why it was built and what it carries
Aurora was likely built to enhance regional connectivity in the Baltic Sea, a key area for trade, data exchange, and cross-border communication. The cable's landing points suggest that it serves both urban and remote areas, providing redundancy for existing cables and supporting local internet service providers (ISPs), businesses, and possibly governmental communications. However, without disclosed design capacity or fiber pair data, the scale of its traffic and its role in carrying international versus regional data cannot be definitively stated.
History: what can be established
Aurora is listed in the GeoCables database as ready for service in 2024, and it is currently marked as in service. No conflicting industry sources are known to suggest a different RFS year, though the lack of public operator documentation makes it difficult to confirm this timeline. The cable's development and deployment process, including surveying, laying, and testing, would have adhered to standard submarine cable industry practices, but specific milestones remain undocumented.
Capacity and technology
Publicly available information does not disclose Aurora's design capacity, fiber pair count, or supplier. Without operator documentation, attributing specific technological features would be speculative. It is reasonable to assume that Aurora employs modern optical transmission technologies typical of submarine cables deployed in the 2020s, such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), but this cannot be confirmed without further details.
Latency: the physics
Aurora's theoretical one-way light propagation latency over its 500 km wet segment is approximately 2.5 ms, with a round-trip time (RTT) floor of 4.9 ms. However, real-world latency measurements are higher due to additional factors such as land tails, terminal equipment, and routing. GeoCables' live measurements, which capture the full internet path rather than the cable itself, report a minimum RTT of 9.7 ms between Uto and Sassnitz, and 11.1 ms in the reverse direction. These values reflect the combined latency of Aurora's wet segment and terrestrial network components.
Redundancy: what happens if it breaks
Aurora's landing points overlap with several other cables, providing redundancy in the Baltic region. For example, Brondby and Klagshamn are also served by the
GlobalConnect Denmark-Sweden cable, while Farosund connects to
Mjolner East and
Sweden-Latvia. Visby is linked to
Oskarshamn-Visby and
Västervik-Visby, and Rønne is connected to
Rønne-Rødvig. In the event of a break, traffic could be rerouted through these alternative cables, though repair logistics would depend on the nature and location of the fault. Submarine cable repairs typically involve specialized vessels and can take weeks to complete.
Bottom line
- Aurora is a 500 km submarine cable in the Baltic Sea, owned by GlobalConnect.
- It connects Sweden, Denmark, and Germany via 12 landing points.
- Listed as ready for service in 2024; no conflicting RFS data is known.
- Design capacity, fiber pairs, supplier, and technology remain undisclosed.
- Theoretical RTT over the wet segment is 4.9 ms; live measurements show higher values.
- Redundancy is provided by overlapping cables in the region.