CanaLink is building a ring of submarine cables in the Canary Islands.

The 553km loop - dubbed the Orient Island Ring - will connect the islands of Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, and Fuerteventura, offering diversification of subsea infrastructure in the Canary Islands.

The main trunk will run from Gran Canaria, featuring branches to Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. A secondary cable system will serve as a redundant route between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

Plans for the cable first emerged late last year. At the Submarine Networks EMEA conference this week, Zakariaa Edouieb, head of international business development at CanaLink, said the route would feature seven landing points across the three islands.

The cable will be an unrepeated system, with a capacity of 308Tbps across eight fiber pairs.

The project has a budget of €34 million ($35.4m), of which €23 million ($24m) was funded under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) digital program, provided by the EU.

Construction of the cable has already begun, with completion slated for Q1 2028.

Edouieb added the cable offers potential for expansion to Morocco.

CanaLink is a joint venture between IT3 and IslaLink, initially formed in 2011 to deploy the CanaLink cable connecting the Spanish island of Tenerife with mainland Spain and Asilah in Morroco.

In 2021, Red Eléctrica de España began the deployment of a 132kV electricity cable between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

Spanish operator Telefónica announced plans for the Pencan-X project earlier this month, connecting the Iberian Peninsula in mainland Spain to the Canary Islands. This project was also partially funded by the EU.

Currently, cables landing in the Canary Islands include SAT3 (formerly known as Pencan 7), Pencan-9, Pencan-8, Canalink, WACS, ACE, with the 2Africa cable landing in Gran Canaria in December 2023. CanaLink has investments in the 2Africa, WACS, and ACE cables.