According to the Swedish paperExpressen(machine translated), two fiber optic cables operated by Global Connect between Sweden and Finland were damaged Monday morning. The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) said that the cable breaks occurred on land in Finland. The damage affected about a hundred businesses and six thousand homes.
Swedish authorities initially suspected foul play, with the Minister of Civil Defense saying sabotage was suspected. However, Finnish police denied this, saying there was no ongoing criminal investigation regarding the cable break.
Telecom operator Elisa later announced that one of the cables was accidentally by an excavator at a construction site, with Global Connect confirming it. However, the other damaged cable is still being investigated at the time of writing, and we don’t have any news yet on what caused its disruption.
Damage to internet cables isn’t usually big news, especially if it didn’t have a significant global impact. However, two fiber optic lines were disrupted between Sweden and Finland just weeks aftertwo undersea internet cables had been cut in the Baltic Sea. A Chinese ship is suspected ofdeliberately dragging its anchorwhile traversing the area, thus cutting the BCS East-West Interlink Cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania and the C-Lion1 traveling between Finland and Germany. NATO authorities are still investigating the previous event. Still, this news highlighted the vulnerability of communications cables and how simultaneous damage to multiple cables, deliberate or otherwise, could throw the global internet into chaos.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
