C-Lion Cable Down

C-Lion Cable Down In Baltic Sea

C-Lion is an 8 fibre pair high capacity linear cable that went live in 2016. Transmission rate is 144 Tbps. The cable connects Helsinki data centers to Frankfurt via a cable traversing the Baltic Sea. C-Lion lands at Rostock, Germany, and at Helsinki. The Finnish government financed, owns, and operates the subsea network in the national interest. One goal of the project was to reduce network dependence on third country transit via Sweden or the Baltics. Another was to provide enough capacity to grow the Finnish data center market. 

Finland offers many advantages for large data centers. Its cool climate dramatically lowers cooling costs as well as extending server life spans. There is also attractively priced, reliable, and abundant power in the form of hydro, nuclear, and wind. I think the large Google data center in Hamina, Finland opened the government's eyes to the economic potential that subsea capacity unlocks. Indeed, Google announced just a few days ago that it was investing $1 billion in the Hamina facility for AI expansion. It is important to note that data centres devoted to AI do not need low latency because they are simply estimating large scale nonlinear statistical models. They do not serve end users. So relatively remote locations with cool climates and abundant reliable power like Iceland and the Nordics are extremely attractive. 

C-Lion went dark today due to a fault somewhere on the wet segment. No repair ETA is available. Most likely fishing or a ship dragging its anchor to steady itself in rough seas is responsible.