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

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.

Comments

Nice name...

[Dutch Gun]

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

Re:Nice name...

[Talderas]

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

Re:Russian mischief

[Hognoxious]

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

I thought that was around Peterborough?

Not mentioned, they got generous "help"

[willworkforbeer]

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."

Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help"

[amorsen]

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.

Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help"

[bob_super]

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.

Re:Not mentioned, they got generous "help"

[0123456]

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

Re:Yay!

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Russian mischief

[Hognoxious]

Is shit journalism interesting?

Rosy financial projections

[mi]

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.

The bigger news here

[hackertourist]

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.

Re:The bigger news here

[hackertourist]

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.

HFT?

[NoKaOi]

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?

Re:Russian mischief

[Hognoxious]

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.

Re:Yay!

[fisted]

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

Loose Seals?

[MooseTick]

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.

Re:sounds invasive

[fisted]

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.