Data cable between Finland and Sweden damaged: Internet failure

A data cable that runs between Finland and Sweden was damaged on Tuesday night. This was reported by the radio station Sveriges Radio and based on police information. Everything currently points to an accident. The lines were apparently accidentally cut during construction work, the Finnish Transport and Communications Authority (Traficom) said on Tuesday. The damage has already been repaired.

In his initial reaction, Swedish Civil Protection Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin spoke of a possible act of sabotage. The radio station Sveriges Radio also reported that the Finnish police assumed a crime had been committed. However, Finnish police emphasized that they had not opened a “criminal investigation.”

Now the Finnish network operator Elisa also contradicted the media reports. The company’s head of safety, Jaakko Wallenius, told the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that an excavator had accidentally cut the cable in Vihti. Wallenius did not provide any information about the damage in Espoo.

In November, damage to two fiber optic cables in the Baltic Sea occurred within a short period of time. This involved a cable that runs between Sweden and Lithuania and one between Sweden and Germany. The cause of this is still unclear in both cases.

Swedish authorities are investigating possible sabotage. The investigators’ focus is on a Chinese ship called “Yi Peng 3”, which is said to have passed the affected areas of the cables at the time in question.

Notes: This message has been updated.