Operators to discuss early retirement for shared North Sea cables

摘要

Several European operators are to meet in the next few weeks to discuss whether to decommission a number of submarine cable systems connecting the UK to continental Europe, several years earlier than was originally planned. Overcapacity and underpricing in the market have advanced the argument for retiring several older, lower-capacity cables linking the UK to the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium up to five years early, according to a source close to the operators. The growth in capacity and consequent fall in prices has meant capacity on many of these older cables now costs the consortia in question more to operate and maintain than the reenues they generate.