Tyco Communications was announced as the winner on 7 March and negotiations were finalized on 14 April, as a turnkey contract on the condition that the cable could be financed. The main difficulty was that NSC, a foundation, had very little equity, and spent most of its cash on a US$300,000 detailed study for Tyco to advance the planning. Hannon Armstrong was selected as a financial partner and the money was guaranteed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The first work took place at Breivika: the land-owner was contacted on 7 May, a sales agreement was signed on 13 May, permits were finalized on 23 May, construction started the next day and the NOK 5-million facility was completed on 25 July. Permission for the installations on Svalbard was granted on 17 June.