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Fenno-German 'Sea Lion' Telecom Cable Laying Begins (yle.fi)

Posted by Soulskill on from the data-must-flow dept.

jones_supa writes: A couple of years ago, details began to unfold of a government-backed high capacity data cable between Germany and Finland, which would be routed through the Baltic Sea. The cable has now been nicknamed "Sea Lion," and the work started Monday in Santahamina coastal area, outside Helsinki. The cable was built by Alcatel Lucent and is operated by the Finnish firm Cinia Group. The Finnish government, along with the banking and insurance sector, have together invested €100M into the project. That investment is expected to pay for itself many times over once the business sector gets a boost from the new telecom jump. The new cable also makes Finland independent of the Øresund Bridge, through which all of the country's Internet traffic is currently routed, via Denmark and Sweden. Eventually the new link can reach Asia as well, via the Northeast Passage shipping route.

39 comments

  1. I could do without sea lions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I could do without sea lions,

  2. Nice name... by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Someone either has a black sense of humor or doesn't remember another channel crossing operation dubbed Sea Lion.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    1. Re:Nice name... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speaking of humor, I laid a cable about 10 minutes ago. Massive bowlwinder...thanks Chipotle!

    2. Re:Nice name... by Talderas · · Score: 1

      I'm going to go with black humor. That's the first thing that came to mind.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  3. Russian mischief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Expect Russian mischief as Finland draws closer to NATO.

    1. Re:Russian mischief by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

      According the the title, this isn't about Finland, it's about Fenland.

      I thought that was around Peterborough?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re:Russian mischief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spelling flames are boring

    3. Re:Russian mischief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spelling flames are boring

      I no rite?

    4. Re:Russian mischief by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Is shit journalism interesting?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re:Russian mischief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fenno-

      Also: "the the"

    6. Re:Russian mischief by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fenno-

      Google shows one example, a picture of a stamp. All the other hits are to a guy of that name.

      It's Finno. As in ~-Ugric.

      Also: "the the"

      You got me there. But you know, it looks like another winter of long shadows and high-igh-igh hopes is on the way.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    7. Re:Russian mischief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fennoscandia

  4. And, in the US... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the corporations are destroying Internet connectivity as fast as they can. I'm in the Weston in downtown Seattle, and five years ago we had better connectivity than we do now. Fiber is constantly made dark here. Constantly.

    1. Re:And, in the US... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The city owns nine fiber strands that pass in front of our office. None are used. They are all dark. The city is not using them and will not allow anyone else to use them. We're stuck on a shared ISDN line in our office, which is very painful while the city has millions of dollars worth of fiber under the street that they won't let anyone use. It's amazing how anti-Internet the city of Seattle is.

    2. Re:And, in the US... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that when Seattle had a soul?

  5. Not mentioned, they got generous "help" by willworkforbeer · · Score: 2

    According to unnamed sources, the project got significant help from the charity, "NSAssists" who provided many critical hardware components, free of charge.
    The project leader stated that, "We are so fortunate that a little-known US-based charitable foundation offered to help without even being asked."

    --
    Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
    1. Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help" by amorsen · · Score: 1

      At least that way the surveillance equipment gets installed beforehand. Otherwise they have to send in undersea crews afterwards, right at the same time as three different ships accidentally cut three different cables in the area...

      If you get the surveillance in beforehand, you avoid a lot of expenses later.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    2. Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help" by bob_super · · Score: 1

      Splicing a buried underwater cable makes no practical sense if you can tap or "cooperate" at its landing points (finland and Germany, not the US' worst enemies). The construction of the cable makes it a huge risk and hard to stay undetected.

    3. Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anything to get around the Swedish military intelligence drag-net for all foreign communications.. Wait, didn't they co-operate with the NSA? So, in conclusion, one part of the NSA works against the other part. This is a clear case of IBM's Contention Management!

    4. Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help" by 0123456 · · Score: 2

      But it gives plausible deniability to the governments that let them tap the cables.

    5. Re: Not mentioned, they got generous "help" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently this charity organization is like... a top secret charity organization, because I can't find any information on it at all! Will you provide some info to support your claim in any way at all?

    6. Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's only valid if you can access the end nodes. Now think about the many parts of the world that hate the US and Europe. Try the dark-net in Asia or the middle-east.

  6. Capacity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't find any mention anywhere of the capacity of the cable, as if it's somehow not important in the context of communication links.

    1. Re:Capacity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't find any mention anywhere of the capacity of the cable, as if it's somehow not important in the context of communication links.

      It's fiber optic cable, capacity is determined by the number of strands and the equipment plugged into each end. (generally speaking)
      This particular cable is most likely single mode fiber, which I think currently has a record of around 1 petabit/s, per strand (at least right now).

      A better question is how many strands are in the cable, as that will give you a better idea of what could be expected in a real-world deployment scenario.
      Their site states: "consisting of eight paired fiber optic cables". Which might mean it's only 8 pairs (16 strands), and I guess that might be all they are running due to the distance required since it's a single span. But they might also mean that they have 8 'cables', each consisting of multiple strands, all wrapped up in the one larger sheath.

      Here's their web site, which also appears to be the original source for all the other articles floating around... http://cinia.fi/en/c-lion

  7. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, even an inanimate object, a cable, gets laid more than you.

  8. Cables with friggin laser internet are for sharks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you are all moose. Moose say MOOOOOOOOOOSE! MOOOOOOOOOOSE mooose MOOOOOOOOOOOSE! MOOOOOOOOOOse say the Mose. YOU CABLE MOSE!!

  9. Rosy financial projections by mi · · Score: 1

    The Finnish government, along with the banking and insurance sector, have together invested €100M into the project. That investment is expected to pay for itself many times over once the business sector gets a boost from the new telecom jump

    Frankly, if it requires government investment, it is doubtful, there will be any payoff.

    To support the "many times over" claim, I'd like to see more details — such returns aren't that common even among truly capitalist investments.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  10. The bigger news here by hackertourist · · Score: 1

    is the plan for a cable under the Northeast Passage. A sea lane that used to be blocked by ice most of the year. I wonder if they've done feasibility studies, or if that "plan" is just a data center owner's wishful thinking.

    1. Re:The bigger news here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is the plan for a cable under the Northeast Passage. A sea lane that used to be blocked by ice most of the year. I wonder if they've done feasibility studies, or if that "plan" is just a data center owner's wishful thinking.

      Well, considering Alcatel-Lucent has already manufactured and delivered the cable itself, and it's already being installed... I would suspect that they've done a couple studies.
      And just FYI, I don't think I'd really refer to TeliaSonera as simply a "data center owner". They kind of have a shitload of experience dealing with trans-oceanic cables, considering they are a pretty freaking large network provider spanning several continents.

    2. Re:The bigger news here by hackertourist · · Score: 5, Informative

      Um, no. The cable being laid at the moment goes from Finland to Germany. A Northeast Passage cable would go from the other end of Finland, along the Russian coast to Japan.

      When plans for the undersea link to Germany were unveiled last year, he [the minister] mused that it could one day be hooked up via Finland to another that could run under the Northeast Passage - providing a superfast data route to Asia.

      Conceded, more than a data center owner, but "mused" and "one day" doesn't exactly sound like they've finalized their plans.

      And another company working on undersea cables in the Arctic (working on a route from Europe via Canada to Asia) has its doubts:

      The route above Russia is too long a route with little or no commercial demand. No financing would be available and there are too many ice scour issues in East Siberian Sea to make this route preferable over the Northwest Passage route.

  11. sounds invasive by tanimislam · · Score: 0

    I wonder why the Germans chose the name Sea Lion.

    1. Re:sounds invasive by fisted · · Score: 1

      Maybe it has something to do with the cable being submerged in water, you know, much like sea lions. But noo, right, it's probably because we just *love* to make subtle^W references to the nazi time.

      --
      CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
  12. Sea Lions Off Sweden! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gamergate did this.

  13. HFT? by NoKaOi · · Score: 1

    along with the banking and insurance sector

    So does that really mean this is really primarily for HFT? Or is HFT a uniquely American bit of fuckery?

  14. Re:Yay! by fisted · · Score: 1

    +5 You-owe-me-a-new-keyboard-and-one-gulp-of-coffee

    --
    CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
  15. Loose Seals? by MooseTick · · Score: 1

    I just hope they don't run into any loose seals when they do this. They have been known to take a hand or two.

    --
    Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
  16. Gamergate punks fuck off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watch it. Your network cable might try to sexually harass any women in the area when you deploy it.