A new fibre-optic cable connecting Sweden, Estonia and Finland is due to enter service in 2027, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports. Seabed surveys are about to begin near the island of Saaremaa.
The route will run under the sea from Gotland to Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, overland across Estonia from Haapsalu to Viimsi, and then under the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki, covering about 550 kilometres in total. The Swedish company GlobalConnect AB will build and own it. The project costs about €40 million, of which €15.7 million comes from EU funding.
Tõnu Nirk of Estonia's digital affairs ministry said the country needed a physically separate route so that data could keep flowing if other cables were cut. In recent years, ships linked to Russia have damaged several cables, a gas pipeline and a power link in the Baltic Sea.
Source: ERR News
