Finland investigates cause of fibre-optic cable outages

Finland said on Tuesday it was investigating the causes of two separate breaches of land-based fibre-optic cables in the Nordic country, the latest in a series of telecoms infrastructure outages to affect the Baltic Sea region.

Nordic telecoms group GlobalConnect said one of the two breaches was likely caused by excavation while it was still investigating the second incident. One of the breaches had been repaired by Tuesday morning.

The disruption followed recent breaches of two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, which raised suspicions of potential sabotage.

“The authorities are investigating the matter together with the company. We take the situation seriously,” Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications Lulu Ranne said in a post on social media X.

The breaches happened on a connection that links Finland and Sweden, a spokesperson for the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority said.
“Due to the circumstances surrounding what happened, sabotage is suspected,” Swedish Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said in a written statement.

Finnish police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.