The first new transatlantic fiber-optic cable in a decade will cater to high-frequency financial traders whose algorithmic trading strategies and server farms are a perfect match for an ultra-low-latency connection between New York and London. Hibernia Atlantic today announced plans to build its new "Project Express," which claims to bring sub-60ms latency to the crucial New York/London link.

How can the speed of light vary among cable operators? It can't, but operators can plan their geographic routes strategically to keep the total cable length a bit shorter than the competition. According to the consultants at Telegeography, breaking 60ms would make Project Express at least 5ms faster than its closest competitor.

The cable will be "an entirely new, all-marine, four-fiber pair, transatlantic optical cable system," according to Hibernia Atlantic, and it will run between Halifax in Canada and Somerset County in the UK. The cable will connect to Hibernia Atlantic's existing low-latency connections between Halifax and New York City.

Given the inexpensive nature of transatlantic data costs (thanks to a huge building boom a decade ago), such a pricey project would seem to have a limited market. But it's a market that's willing to pay big bucks for even a few milliseconds of advantage.

"Demand for low latency routes has grown exponentially over the past several years," said Hibernia Atlantic CEO Bjarni Thorvardarson. "Project Express will offer the lowest latency from New York to London and provide demanding customers the speed and accuracy they require."

The build should be complete by mid-2012.

The Hibernia announcement follows a similar unveiling from a company called Spread Networks, which has built a new, 13.33 millisecond link between Chicago and New York. As with the Hibernia link, Spread trenched a brand new fiber optic line at great expense, just to give its high-frequency trading customers a few milliseconds of advantage over the competition.