Renewed sabotage of fiber optic networks in France
The fiber optic networks of three French telecommunications companies were the target of sabotage on Monday night.
(Image: Yurchanka Siarhei / Shutterstock.com)
In France, fiber optic infrastructure was once again sabotaged on Monday night. After lines on high-speed railroad lines were attacked with arson attacks at the end of last week, the telecommunications companies Bouygues Free 1337 and SFR were now the target of the acts of sabotage. The Olympic Games currently taking place in Paris are apparently not affected by the network outages.
The responsible French state secretary Marina Ferrari confirmed a report by the daily newspaper Le Parisienne on X. For customers of the affected companies, the attacks affected fiber optic connections, landline telephony and mobile telephony.
Attacks before dawn
SFR reported between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. that fiber optic cables had been cut in six departments, the newspaper writes. Landline and mobile customers of the company and of foreign telecom companies that also use the network were affected. Free 1337 reported on X that network equipment had been disrupted in six departments and that certain services could be interrupted.
On Friday, unknown persons carried out attacks on the fiber optic network of the French state railroad SNCF, causing massive disruption to train services shortly before the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris. These have since been rectified. It is not yet clear whether there is a connection between the new incident and the attack on the railroad. It is not yet known who is responsible for last night's attacks. Commenting on the attacks on the SNCF, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on France 2 that profiles of suspects had been identified. The approach was similar to that of the ultra-left in the past.
Darmanin was possibly alluding to attacks such as the one in October 2022, when cables were deliberately cut in at least three places in the Marseille region. In April of that year, four fiber optic lines were also cut in the Paris area. The German transport infrastructure has also been the target of sabotage, also in October 2022. In Berlin, for example, thousands of households were cut off from electricity and internet in 2018 following an arson attack and fiber optic cables were deliberately cut in 2014. (anw)
