Covering a distance of around 1,200 kilometers, the cable is the only direct connection of its kind between Finland and Central Europe and runs alongside other key pieces of infrastructure including gas pipelines and power cables.
An unexplained failure in a submarine telecommunications cable linking Finland to Germany has disrupted communications services, the company that manages the connection said on Monday.
The C-Lion1 cable, which connects Helsinki to Rostock, Germany, was built and is operated by Cinia, a state-controlled Finnish company.
Covering a distance of around 1,200 kilometers, the cable is the only direct link of its kind between Finland and Central Europe and runs alongside other key pieces of infrastructure including gas pipelines and power cables.
It’s unclear what caused the failure – Cinia said in a statement that it is still investigating the issue. However, the failure comes just weeks after the United States warned that it had detected an increase in Russian military activity around key undersea cables. Two US officials told CNN in September that the US believed Russia was now more likely to carry out potential sabotage operations on these critical pieces of infrastructure.
The warning came following a joint investigation by public broadcasters from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, which in April 2023 reported that Russia had a fleet of suspected spy ships operating in Nordic waters as part of a potential sabotage program for submarine cables and wind farms in the region.
The extent of the disruption caused by the flaw revealed this Monday is unclear. The most important data streams are typically routed over several different cables to avoid excessive reliance on a single connection.
A repair ship is ready to travel to the damage site, Cinia said in a statement this Monday afternoon. Cinia stated that it does not know how long the repair will take, but added that it normally takes between five and 15 days.
Cinia did not immediately respond to CNN Internacional’s request for more details.
