Did Norway break a power cable or a fiber optic cable

Norway's Svalbard cable that was damaged in January 2022 was a fiber optic cable, not a power cable.

The incident involved one of the two subsea fiber optic cables connecting Svalbard to mainland Norway, which carry both data and a small electrical current to power signal repeaters along the 1,300 km route . On the night of January 7, 2022, one cable experienced a failure due to a shunt fault, which caused the electrical current to short to ground, temporarily disabling the cable's operation . The fiber itself was crushed, likely by a heavy object such as a ship's anchor or trawl, exposing the copper layer that carries the current .

Nature of the Damage

Experts who examined the cable concluded that the outer jacket was crushed, and the steel reinforcement was weakened, but there was no sharp break typical of direct mechanical cutting . This type of damage is consistent with accidental contact from maritime activity rather than intentional sabotage, although human involvement could not be definitively ruled out . The cable system is designed with redundancy, so communications with Svalbard continued despite the failure, though the redundancy was temporarily lost .

Impact and Repair

The damaged cable provides broadband and satellite communications for Svalbard, including the SvalSat ground station. After the failure, a workaround using an alternate power supply restored partial functionality, and full redundancy was re-established by January 18, 2022 . The final repair involved retrieving the cable from the seabed and splicing the fiber, a process completed by June 2022 using remotely operated vehicles . In summary, the incident involved a fiber optic cable with integrated power for signal amplification, not a conventional power transmission cable, and the damage was caused by crushing rather than a direct cut or break.