Finland-Germany submarine cable restored after repairment

The submarine cable between Finland and Germany, which was damaged in the Baltic Sea earlier this month has been fully restored, said Finnish state-owned data transmission company Cinia in a press release on Friday.

The damage in Cinia's C-Lion1 submarine cable has been repaired and the direct submarine cable connection between Finland and Germany is back online and fully operational, said the company.

The repair work in the Swedish EEZ, east of Öland, was completed ahead of schedule on Thursday at 9:00 pm (EET).

Despite the need to bring in specialized equipment from outside the Baltic Sea, the repair process progressed swiftly.

The repair vessel Cable Vigilance was dispatched from France immediately after the fault was detected.

"As part of ensuring business continuity in such exceptional situations, there are well-planned and rehearsed processes and procedures in place. The mobilization of the response team was rapid, and the connectivity could be restored slightly faster than expected. The repair measures were accelerated by the smooth and efficient cooperation with the authorities," said Ari-Jussi Knaapila, Chief Executive Officer of Cinia.

The cable outage caused minimal disruption to Finnish society due to alternative routes and rapid repair processes.

"This incident highlights that the redundancy of Finland's data networks is well built for current needs. However, the future needs are growing, so building new alternative connections is critical from a national perspective," Knaapila added.

The cause of the cable damage remains under investigation.

The submarine cable between Finland and Germany went out of service on November 18 morning due to a fault.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on November 19 opened an investigation into the damage of submarine cable.

The repair of a damaged submarine telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea started on November 25.