VodafoneThree today announced a feasibility study into a new UK-Norway digital corridor, exploring a high-speed subsea cable route linking mainland Scotland to Shetland and onward to Norway.
- VodafoneThree has announced a feasibility study into a high-speed subsea cable linking mainland Scotland with Shetland and Norway.
- The proposed UK-Norway digital corridor could deliver £8.2 billion in economic value over the next 10 years*, while supporting defence connectivity, enhancing the security of critical digital infrastructure and strengthening resilience.
- In addition, it could also protect up to £6.6 million of UK economic activity for every day that disruption occurs on other routes.
- Expected to begin in summer 2027, the study will examine how greater international connectivity could support businesses, public services and data centres.
The proposed route could deliver up to £8.2 billion in economic value over the next ten years*, according to research conducted by consultancy firm WPI Strategy and commissioned by Vodafone Business.
The proposed corridor could strengthen the security, resilience and capacity of the UK’s digital infrastructure, supporting defence, critical national infrastructure and essential services. Analysis commissioned by VodafoneThree estimates it could protect up to £6.6 million of UK economic activity for each day of severe disruption affecting multiple existing routes where traffic cannot be rerouted. This highlights the value of geographically diverse subsea infrastructure: an alternative northern route could bolster resilience as government identifies coordinated disruption to critical undersea infrastructure as a growing national security risk.
Expected to begin in summer 2027, the study will assess the Scotland-Shetland-Norway route and examine how greater international connectivity could support businesses, public services, defence, data centres and critical national infrastructure (CNI).
By providing additional high-capacity, resilient connectivity, the cable could help make northern Scotland and Shetland more attractive locations for data-centre investment. This could unlock wider economic benefits through construction, skilled employment, local supply chains and new commercial opportunities, subject to the findings of the feasibility study. It could also strengthen the case for investment in northern Scotland and Shetland, supporting regional growth, skilled employment and local supply chains.
Protecting our network of undersea cables is vital to keeping our country safe. Our adversaries are increasingly targeting our critical national infrastructure, including the cables that carry data and enable internet traffic and financial transactions. This is a very welcome step that could not only improve connectivity and boost our economy, especially in Scotland, but strengthen the UK’s national resilience, prevent disruption, and keep us all safe
Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting MP
Reliable international connectivity is vital to the UK’s defence, strengthening our resilience to disruption and enhancing the security of the critical infrastructure on which our economy and public services depend. Norway is a strategically important partner, with a shared commitment to protecting infrastructure across the North Atlantic. A new digital corridor would strengthen the physical links between our countries, add vital route diversity and support secure, resilient connectivity for critical infrastructure on both sides of the North Sea. It could also unlock investment in data centres and AI, creating skilled jobs and wider economic opportunities. This study will help establish the economic and strategic case for the route and identify the partnerships needed to deliver it
Nick Gliddon, Business Director, VodafoneThree
The announcement builds on VodafoneThree’s now-completed feasibility study into a high-speed subsea cable connecting Shetland with mainland Scotland. For Shetland, a separate cable route could provide vital resilience where connectivity currently depends on a single cable system, with outages in 2022 and 2025 exposing the lack of an effective alternative when it fails.
The new study will identify potential routes from Shetland to Norway, as well as possible landing points and delivery partners in the Bergen region. Extending the route to Norway could improve connectivity for island communities and businesses, add resilience for Shetland Spaceport and other strategically important sites, and support future economic opportunities, including potential data-centre development.
VodafoneThree’s £11 billion network investment will support up to 13,000 jobs at the peak of its 5G Standalone (SA) network build. A new UK-Norway subsea cable via Shetland would help extend the benefits of that investment to the islands, supporting next-generation connectivity, unlocking wider economic opportunities and strengthening the resilience of critical digital infrastructure.
Strengthening digital security and resilience
Subsea cables carry 98% of international data traffic and are essential to modern economies. Damage or disruption can affect businesses, public services and organisations that depend on continuous access to digital services.
VodafoneThree will examine how a new route from mainland Scotland to Shetland and onwards to Norway could increase route diversity, support the secure movement of data and help defence, data centres, telecommunications networks and other CNI maintain essential services during disruption.
Building a stronger digital corridor between the UK and Norway
The study comes amid deepening UK-Norway cooperation on defence, security, energy and critical infrastructure. In December 2024, the two countries agreed a strategic partnership covering defence and security, energy and the green transition, alongside closer cooperation to protect subsea and offshore infrastructure across the North Atlantic.
The proposed digital corridor would explore a complementary opportunity to strengthen the infrastructure connecting the two countries. VodafoneThree wants to build the commercial partnerships needed to make the route viable, bringing together UK and Norwegian expertise across telecommunications, data centres, technology and infrastructure. These partnerships could support cross-border investment, innovation and skilled employment while improving the long-term resilience of essential digital and defence-related services.
Norway is emerging as a major location for AI data-centre investment, supported by its abundant renewable hydropower and cooler climate, which can reduce the energy required for cooling. A new direct link to Scotland would provide additional international route diversity and strengthen the resilience of Norway’s digital infrastructure, while creating new capacity to support the country’s growing AI economy. It would also be the first new direct subsea cable between Scotland and Norway in around a quarter of a century.
-Ends-
Notes to Editors:
*£8.2bn in economic value added over ten years from when the cable goes live
How the £8.2 billion growth figure was estimated
More international capacity lets people and businesses use the internet more, and more internet use goes with higher output. That chain of calculations comprises of five steps.
- The new cable can carry up to 420 terabits per second (Tbps). Tbps measures how much data a cable can carry each second. The UK’s existing international cables can carry an estimated 8,850 Tbps, so the new cable adds about 4.7% to UK international capacity.
- We use a study of subsea cables in many countries (Briglauer, Katz and Jung, 2025). It finds that a 1% rise in international bandwidth increases broadband use by 0.041% to 0.088%. For the headline, central estimate, we use the midpoint, 0.065%. A 4.7% rise in capacity would then increase broadband use by about 0.3%.
- The same study reports that a 1% rise in broadband use increases output per person by 0.024% to 0.113%. We use the midpoint, 0.069%. UK output would then rise by about 0.02%.
- UK output (GDP) was about £3.1 trillion in the 12 months to June 2026. A 0.02% rise is about £650m a year.
- New capacity fills up over time. In line with the same study, we assume that use grows evenly and reaches full use in year 7. The estimated output gain is about £93m in year 1 and £650m a year from year 7.
- Summed, across the 10 years from when the new cable becomes active, the total value of economic output growth supported is £3.6bn (the upper bound is up to £8.2bn). This figure includes a 3.5% discount rate, applied based on HM Treasury’s Green Book methodology.
How the £6.6 economic loss figure was estimated
The existing UK–Norway cable, called NO-UK, runs from Stavanger in Norway to Newcastle. We estimate the cost of losing it, £6.6m per day, in four steps.
- Value carried by UK international cables is about £101bn of UK output a year, or £277m a day. This applies the University of Huddersfield’s estimate (3.3% of GDP in 2015) to current UK GDP, and uprates it by CPI.
- The new cable can carry up to 420 terabits per second (Tbps). We assume half of this (210 Tbps) is free for diverted traffic, about 2.4% of total UK international cable capacity. 2.4% of £277m is about £6.6m a day.
- The figure applies only in a severe disruption across multiple routes, where traffic can’t be rerouted. Normally, traffic from a single cut cable reroutes through other cables, for example via Denmark, Amsterdam or Frankfurt, with little economic loss.
- Caveats: this is an illustrative upper bound, not a forecast. It uses cable capacity as a stand-in for traffic and holds the 2015 share of GDP constant. It measures a different scenario from the £3.6bn growth figure, so the two shouldn’t be added together.
