Why the Baltic Is Europe’s New Digital Lifeline

A €40m Baltic subsea cable build, now underway, will boost capacity and resilience by 2027, highlighting why redundancy is becoming essential for Europe’s data networks

15 Dec 2025

A €40mn subsea cable project linking Sweden, Finland and Estonia is moving into construction, as operators and policymakers seek to strengthen Europe’s digital infrastructure against rising demand and growing security concerns.

Led by GlobalConnect and supported by European Union funding, the project will add four new fibre-optic cables across the Baltic Sea. Full service is expected by 2027. The design creates a reinforced loop intended to increase capacity while providing alternative routes if individual links are disrupted.

The investment comes as data traffic across Nordic and Baltic markets continues to rise, driven by cloud computing, remote work and the rapid expansion of data centres. Existing subsea routes are under pressure, raising the risk that outages in one location could affect services across several countries.

By adding parallel connections, the new cables are expected to ease congestion and reduce the impact of failures. “Redundancy has shifted from a premium feature to a baseline requirement,” said one regional analyst.

Public funding has played a role in accelerating the project. About €15mn is being provided through the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility, which supports cross-border infrastructure seen as strategically important. European institutions increasingly regard subsea cables as critical assets, carrying the vast majority of the continent’s international data traffic.

Concerns have been sharpened by a series of recent incidents affecting infrastructure in European waters, prompting calls for more diverse routes and fewer single points of failure. Shorter and more direct connections across the Baltic are also expected to improve latency for businesses operating across northern Europe, while reducing reliance on longer paths through central hubs.

For network operators, the additional capacity and resilience strengthen their position in a competitive market where reliability now weighs as heavily as speed. However, subsea construction remains complex, with environmental approvals and coordination between multiple countries often extending timelines and costs.

Industry executives argue that the long-term benefits justify the investment. As digital services underpin a growing share of Europe’s economy, resilient connectivity is becoming essential rather than optional.

The Baltic project is likely to be followed by similar initiatives elsewhere. Governments and operators are increasingly focused on future-proofing Europe’s digital lifelines as demand continues to grow over the coming decade.