Arctic Submarine Cable PolarLink Opens: Europe-Asia Data Transmission Latency Reduced by 40%
PolarLink, jointly laid by Finland's Cinia and Japan's NEC, enters commercial operation, connecting Europe and Asia via Arctic route, reducing end-to-end latency from 170ms to 102ms.
Finnish telecom infrastructure company Cinia announced on December 23 that PolarLink, a two-year Arctic submarine cable project, has officially entered commercial operation. The 14,500km cable runs from Helsinki through the Arctic Ocean floor and Bering Strait to Tokyo, the first intercontinental submarine cable to traverse the Arctic.
Compared to traditional Europe-Asia cables via Suez Canal or Cape of Good Hope, PolarLink's route is approximately 40% shorter, reducing single-trip latency from about 170ms to about 102ms. This 68ms improvement is significant for high-frequency trading, real-time gaming, and remote surgery.
PolarLink has a design capacity of 380 terabits per second using latest space-division multiplexing fiber technology. The cable was laid under Arctic ice using ice-floor autonomous laying robots. Total construction cost was approximately 1.2 billion euros, jointly invested by telecom companies from Finland, Japan, Norway, and Canada.
Cinia CEO Ari-Jussi Knaapila emphasized the strategic significance: besides reducing latency, the Arctic cable provides an alternative route unaffected by Suez Canal geopolitical risks.
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