Oslo, Norway

Oslo, Norway: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Oslo is the capital and most populous city of Norway, situated at the head of the Oslofjord on the country's southeastern coast. As a submarine cable landing point, Oslo connects to two cables that together establish a regional corridor between Norway and Sweden. Both cables are bilateral in nature, linking these two Scandinavian neighbors directly via subsea routes rather than spanning intercontinental distances.

The two cables landing at Oslo — N0r5ke Viking 2 and Norfest — form a dedicated Norway–Sweden subsea link. Their combined presence makes Oslo a focused regional hub for cross-border connectivity between the two countries, servicing a corridor that runs between Norwegian and Swedish coastal infrastructure.

Cables Landing at Oslo, Norway

N0r5ke Viking 2 is a submarine cable stretching 900 km, with a projected ready-for-service (RFS) date of 2028, currently in draft status. It connects landing points in Norway and Sweden, establishing a bilateral Scandinavian route. This cable represents planned future capacity between the two countries, extending the subsea link that already exists along this corridor.

Norfest is a 749 km submarine cable with an RFS year of 2023, also in draft status. Like N0r5ke Viking 2, it connects Norway and Sweden, making it a regional cable operating within the Scandinavian corridor. Norfest's earlier RFS date compared to N0r5ke Viking 2 makes it the more established of the two systems landing at Oslo.

Regional Context

Within Norway's broader submarine cable landscape — which spans 18 cables across 43 landing points — Oslo hosts 2 cables, placing it in the upper 88% of Norwegian landing points by cable count. Other Norwegian landing points carry significantly more cables: Kristiansand leads with 7, followed by Stavanger with 4, and Bergen, Bodø, and Longyearbyen each with 3. Kårstø, like Oslo, hosts 2 cables, making it the closest peer in terms of cable count.

Network Role

Oslo functions as a two-cable landing point focused exclusively on the Norway–Sweden bilateral corridor. Both cables landing here — Norfest and N0r5ke Viking 2 — share the same country pairing, meaning Oslo's submarine cable connections are concentrated on a single cross-border route rather than distributed across multiple international destinations. This distinguishes Oslo from larger Norwegian landing points such as Kristiansand or Stavanger, which serve broader multi-directional international routes.

Within the regional submarine cable graph, Oslo's role is that of a dedicated bilateral terminus: a capital city with a focused subsea footprint oriented toward its nearest Scandinavian neighbor. Its position as host to both an operational system and a draft future system on the same Norway–Sweden corridor signals continued investment in this particular subsea route.