Telecoms giant BT has awarded contracts worth £26.9 million as it embarks on its largest ever subsea cabling project in the UK.
The scheme will see 20 submarine fibre optic cables laid on the seabed as part of a wider £146m project to deliver fast access broadband to the Highlands and islands of Scotland.
Three companies Chelmsford-based Global Marine, A-2-Sea Solutions of Hampshire and French-based Orange Marine have been contracted to deliver and connect up the new subsea infrastructure.
Orange Marine’s cable ship Rene Descartes will lay more than 400km of fibre optics during the build phase which is due to begin in May.
BT Scotland director Brendan Dick said: “Quite simply, it’s the biggest subsea engineering project BT has undertaken in UK territorial waters and is the first ever with so many seabed crossings.
“The size of the task presents a massive challenge, not only because of the number of cables involved but also the fact that the work has to be completed within a single, six-month weather window.
