A submarine data cable system between Finland and Germany was officially opened for commercial use, announced Cinia Group, Finnish government-owned ICT-based service and solution provider on Friday. 
  
The new digital highway links Northern and Central Europe with a record-breaking capacity of 144 Tbps (terabits per second), enabling data center providers to benefit from Finland's cool climate, strict privacy laws and low energy pricing, said Cinia Group. 
  
Cinia Group held a ceremony on Friday to celebrate the official opening and commercial availability of the cable connection, named Cinia C-Lion 1. 
  
"With the Northern Digital Highway, we are building infrastructure that puts Finland on the top of the list for global digital pioneers when choosing a favorable location for data intensive operations," said Ari-Jussi Knaapila, Cinia's CEO at the ceremony. 
  
Brigitte Zypries, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, noted that the new submarine data cable is an opportunity not only for businesses in Finland and Germany but also the whole of Europe. 
  
Finnish Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka said the Finnish government hopes the submarine cable connection to benefit Finland's national economy. 
  
According to Cinia, the labeled Northern Digital Highway directly links Central European network nodes, such as DE-CIX, the largest internet exchange point in the world, via Finland to Russian and Asian markets. 
  
In the future, the network connection is expected to further stretch to Asia through the Northeast Passage, said Cinia Group. 
  
Earlier in March, Cinia announced that it plans to build "a direct digital Silk Road" linking Europe and Asia by selecting Huawei, a Chinese leading provider of optical transport network solutions, as one of the platforms.