Twenty-nine milliseconds. To most people, that fraction of a second means little. But time is big money for stock traders seeking a speed edge.

A Toronto company hoping to capitalize on that demand has filed a request with Canadian regulators to approve a proposed new fiber-optic line running through the Northwest Passage.

Arctic Fibre plans to spend $600 million to stretch a 15,700km cable between Japan and Nunavut, Canada on the way to Cork, Ireland, and Québec, where it would further connect to the northeastern United States.

Arctic Fibre’s Network Map

To gain government support, Arctic Fibre has asked the Nunavut Impact Review Board and Industry Canada for submarine cable landing licenses that would dramatically improve Internet access and speeds in remote parts of northernmost Canada, especially in the territory of Nunavut. Fiber connections would be available in Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay, Cape Dorset, Igloolik, Taloyoak, and Goja Haven – all in Nunavut. Other fiber connections would be available in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., and in Shemya, Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope, Wainwright, Barrow, and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

In the future, further expansion could bring fiber connections to:

• Québec: Ivujivik, Kangiqsujuaq, Kingirsuk, Kuujjuaq, Quaqtaq, and Salluit
• Nunavut: Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Pangnirtung, Qikiqtarjuaq, Clyde River, Pond Inlet, and Resolute Bay

Deep pocketed investment firms are attracted to claims the new network will cut 29 milliseconds off data connections between Tokyo and London, giving investors a tiny, but very lucrative edge in automated stock trading.

“We’re pretty well assured that that is going to happen fairly quickly,” Doug Cunningham, president of Arctic Fibre told Canadian Press. “Not that it’s rubber-stamped, but we’re very confident that we will be getting a license forthwith.”

The new cable could be running by 2016.