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Submarine cable linking Finland, Germany completed

Xinhua, January 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The deployment of a submarine data cable system between Finland and Germany has been completed, announced Cinia Group, Finnish government-owned ICT-based services and solutions provider, on Tuesday.

"The new digital highway offers the shortest and fastest route to connect Central Europe with optimal data center locations in Northern Europe and business opportunities in Eastern Europe and Asia," said Cinia Group in a press release.

The undersea cable was constructed by Cinia Group in cooperation with French telecommunications equipment producer Alcatel-Lucent, now purchased by Nokia.

The deployment work, which started in October last year, has successfully completed, as the cable has reached its destination in Rostock, northern Germany.

The new connection is planned to be commercially available in spring 2016, after a commissioning and acceptance process.

"The new direct subsea data connection supports the development of the new European data center concept and will provide a major business opportunity for companies both in Finland and Europe," said Ari-Jussi Knaapila, CEO of Cinia Group.

The undersea cable, weighing 3,355 tons, spans 1,175 kilometers from Helsinki to Rostock under the Baltic Sea and join the Finnish fiber optic cable network.

The project, named "Sea Lion," is believed to be the first direct cable link between the Nordic region and continental Europe.

Presently, all data transmission to Finland has taken place via Denmark and Sweden.

In November 2014, Finnish Telecom operator Elisa reported widespread disruptions in internet usage, which were caused by a fault in fiber optic cables connecting Finland to Sweden.

The new submarine cable system will make high-speed data connections available throughout Finland, and therefore improve the current situation of web traffic in the country.

In the future, the network connection is expected to further stretch to Asia through the Northeast Passage, said Cinia Group.

The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications finalized the feasibility study on the undersea cable project in June 2012. In August 2015, the Finnish government approved the construction of the cable system.

The project is a long-term economic investment, which is strategically significant for the European Union and for Finland's digital economy, aiming to build a sustainable, reliable, and super-fast undersea cable connection from Finland to continental Europe, according to the Finnish government. Endit