The Pisces subsea cable that will connect Ireland to mainland Europe has seen its launch date pushed back to 2028.

Announced in May last year, the project will connect Ireland to the European Union, via a 2,131km main trunk between Galway in Ireland and Sines in Portugal.

The second phase of the cable project will also feature two branches to Bilbao in Spain and another landing point in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, France.

The project was initially scheduled to begin in March this year, however, this has been pushed back to 2026, with completion of the main trunk scheduled for 2028.

Totaling 3,000km with a minimum of eight fiber pairs, the cable has been co-founded by the European Union’s HaDEA (Health and Digital Executive Agency) through its Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) digital program.

McMahon Design and Management (MDM) is building the cable.

Through the program, the EU has contributed half of the €8 million ($8.3m) to the project. A €29 million grant had previously been awarded for the works of the project in 2023.

A completion date for the second phase has not yet been shared.

Galway is currently home to the IRIS cable, connecting to Iceland. Ireland is currently home to several cables, such as the ESAT-2, Rockabill, Solar, IRIS, and CC-2 cables. The majority of these cables connect via the UK.

In Sines, Start Campus has recently launched its SIN01 data center. Once complete, the six-building campus will offer 1.2GW of IT capacity.

The city is also a landing point for the EllaLink cable, with the Medusa, New CAM Ring, Nuvem, and Olisipo cables set to join in the coming years.