Svalsat earth station and kongsberg satellite services (a pretty big defense contractor) are on svalbard. Lots of critical DoD and earth observation stuff is in

Svalsat earth station and kongsberg satellite services (a pretty big defense contractor) are on svalbard. Lots of critical DoD and earth observation stuff is in polar and SSO orbits. As for other submarine cables to medium size islands, it's a calculation based on a Telco, that until the advent of o3b, might have been paying $300,000 a month for geostationary transponder space. And the much fatter pipe that is fiber. In some cases partially government subsidized as an essential thing since remaining 100% dependent on satellite is a bad thing if you can afford to avoid it.