Harstad to Sydney: 403ms from the Arctic Circle to the Southern Hemisphere — How Arelion Routes Northern Norway Through Marseille and Singapore to Reach Australia

The Traceroute

On April 2, 2026, a RIPE Atlas probe in Harstad, Norway — a city at 68.8 degrees north latitude, above the Arctic Circle — traced a route to Sydney, Australia at 33.9 degrees south. The packet crossed from one end of the planet to the other.

Harstad, Norway -> Oslo, Norway -> Arvika, Sweden -> Hamburg, Germany -> Frankfurt, Germany -> Marseille, France -> Singapore -> Perth, Australia -> Sydney, Australia

Six countries. Two hemispheres. 403 milliseconds.

The critical moment is between hops 15 and 16. Both are in Marseille, but the RTT jumps from 58.8 ms to 208.3 ms — a 150 ms leap without changing cities. This is the Suez Express: the packet enters a submarine cable in Marseille, travels through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and emerges in Singapore roughly 10,000 km later.

Harstad: Where the Svalbard Cable Begins

Harstad is not a random Arctic town. It is the mainland terminus of the Svalbard Undersea Cable System — the world's northernmost submarine telecommunications cable, connecting mainland Norway to Longyearbyen on the Svalbard archipelago, 1,375 km away.

This twin cable system, laid in 2004, was built primarily to support the Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat), which downloads data from polar-orbiting satellites. The cable carries all civilian communications to and from Svalbard, replacing the previous satellite links.

In January 2022, one of the two Svalbard cables was mysteriously damaged — the cable was broken by external forces at a depth between 300 and 2,700 meters. The case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, but the incident raised suspicions of sabotage in the strategic waters between Norway and Russia. Norway is now building a replacement cable, Arctic Way, with completion targeted for 2028.

Harstad itself connects to mainland Norway through Telenor's backbone, visible in our traceroute as the first leg: Harstad to Lysaker (near Oslo) in 19 ms via Telenor (AS2119). From Oslo, the packet enters the international backbone.

Arelion: The Swedish Carrier That Connects Everything

At hop 11, the packet enters Arelion's network (AS1299) in Arvika, Sweden — just across the border from Norway. Arelion, formerly known as Telia Carrier, is one of the world's largest Tier-1 backbone providers, operating one of only a handful of networks that can reach every part of the Internet without purchasing transit from anyone else.

Arelion carries the packet across the entire route: Oslo to Hamburg (36 ms), Hamburg to Frankfurt (41 ms), Frankfurt to Marseille (58 ms), and then the big jump — Marseille to Singapore (214 ms).

The Marseille to Singapore leg uses submarine cables that pass through the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, across the Indian Ocean, through the Strait of Malacca, and into the Singapore Strait. Multiple cable systems serve this route: SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME-WE 5, AAE-1, and others. Arelion has capacity on several of these systems.

This route is the same one that was disrupted in February 2024 when Houthi-related activity in the Red Sea damaged multiple cables simultaneously, affecting 25% of traffic between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Marseille: The Mediterranean Gateway

Marseille appears twice in the traceroute — hops 15 and 16, both showing the city name but with a 150 ms RTT difference. This reveals Marseille's role as a critical handoff point.

Marseille is the primary submarine cable hub for the Mediterranean and the gateway between Europe and Asia/Africa. At least 16 submarine cables land here, making it the most important cable city in Southern Europe. Data centers clustered around the Marseille landing stations — including Interxion MRS1, MRS2, and MRS3 — house the equipment where European terrestrial fiber meets undersea cables heading south and east.

For our packet from Harstad, Marseille is where the journey transforms from a European terrestrial route to an intercontinental submarine voyage. The packet traveled 3,000 km from Norway to Marseille in 58 ms over land. It then traveled 10,000 km from Marseille to Singapore in 155 ms under the sea.

Norway's Evolving Connectivity

Norway has undergone a connectivity revolution in recent years. Once considered the last stop on the European network, Norway now sits closer to the center of global data highways. Multiple new submarine cables have connected Norwegian cities directly to European data hubs:

• Havfrue/AEC-2: connects Norway to Denmark, Ireland, and the US East Coast
• NO-UK: direct connection to the United Kingdom
• Svalbard Cable System: Harstad to Longyearbyen (and the Arctic)
• Celtic Norse (planned): Trondheim to Ireland
• Leif Erikson (planned): Western Norway to Canada
• Arctic Connect (planned): Kirkenes to Hokkaido, Japan — which would make Norway the fastest waypoint between Europe and Asia

The Arctic Connect project is particularly significant. If completed, it would offer a shorter route between Europe and Asia than the traditional Suez Canal path — the same path our packet from Harstad currently takes. Instead of going south through Marseille, the Suez Canal, and Singapore, traffic could go east along the Arctic seabed directly to Japan.

403ms: From the Midnight Sun to the Southern Cross

The 403 ms in this traceroute covers one of the longest possible journeys on the Internet — from the Arctic Circle to the Southern Hemisphere:

• Harstad -> Oslo (~1,500 km): 19 ms via Telenor's Norwegian backbone
• Oslo -> Marseille (~2,500 km): 59 ms via Arelion through Sweden, Germany, and France
• Marseille -> Singapore (~10,000 km): 215 ms via submarine cable through Suez and the Indian Ocean
• Singapore -> Sydney (~6,300 km): 404 ms via Perth, through submarine cables in the Indian Ocean and around Australia

Total distance: approximately 20,300 km. Direct distance Harstad to Sydney: roughly 15,500 km. The ratio of 1.3:1 is remarkably efficient — this is one of the more direct routes we have documented.

The reason is simple: unlike routes from the Caucasus or Central Asia that must detour through Europe because they lack direct cable paths, Norway sits directly on the European backbone. Arelion's network carries the packet efficiently from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, and from there, the Suez route to Singapore is the natural path to Australia.

What This Route Reveals

The Arctic is connected. Harstad, a town of 25,000 people above the Arctic Circle, reaches Sydney in 403 ms. It is the starting point of the world's northernmost submarine cable and may soon become a waypoint on the Arctic Connect cable to Japan.

Marseille is the hinge of the Eastern Hemisphere. Every packet from Northern Europe to Asia, Africa, or Oceania passes through Marseille's cable landing stations. The 150 ms gap between hop 15 and hop 16 — both labeled Marseille — represents 10,000 km of submarine cable through some of the world's most geopolitically sensitive waters.

One carrier, six countries. Arelion carried this packet from Sweden to Singapore — across five countries and two oceans — without handing it off to another carrier. This is what a Tier-1 backbone looks like in practice.

From the land of the midnight sun to the land of the Southern Cross, a packet crossed 103 degrees of latitude in four-tenths of a second. The cables under the sea made it possible. The fact that someone in Harstad can ping Sydney in 403 ms is not magic — it is the result of decades of cable investment, from the Svalbard system that connects Norway's Arctic outpost to the SEA-ME-WE cables that stitch together Europe and Asia through the narrows of Suez.