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FACTBOX: What to know about rupture of telecom cable between Sweden, Finland

The newspaper said the Global Connect fiber optic network suffered a massive failure in Finland

© Lehtikuva/ Heikki Saukkomaa via REUTERS, archive

HELSINKI, December 3. /TASS/. A telecom cable of the Global Connect company has ruptured between Sweden and Finland. Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin stated that Finnish police suspected sabotage. Subsequently, it was determined that the break was caused by excavation works.

TASS has put together the key facts about the incident.

Circumstances of the cable severance

- The Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported a telecom cable rupture between Sweden and Finland that occurred in Finland last night.

- According to the report, the Finnish police suspected a deliberate attack and informed the Swedish authorities.

- The Helsingin Sanomat said the Global Connect fiber optic network suffered a massive failure in Finland.

- According to Global Connect's website, the company grappled with "isolated outages" in its fiber-optic network, which followed damage to cables in two locations.

- The Swedish government said it is monitoring developments around the incident in Finland.

- Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin stated that the Finnish police are investigating the incident and suspect a sabotage attack, given the circumstances.

- Finnish police said they were not conducting a criminal investigation into the cable damage.

Causes of the damage

- The cable was damaged by an excavator during excavation work, said Jaakko Wallenius, director of security at telecom operator Elisa.

- According to the executive, the Global Connect's cable suffered damage in two locations in Finland, in the towns of Espoo and Vihti.

- Wallenius ruled out the theory of sabotage, insisting it was an accident. He said repairs finished on Tuesday morning.

Previous incidents

- Two underwater cables were damaged under the Baltic Sea on November 17 and 18. One connected Germany and Finland, and the other Sweden and Lithuania.

- The first cable runs along the Nord Stream pipeline. Its failure was reported by the Finnish government-owned telecom operator Cinia.

- The damage to the second cable was later reported by the Swedish telecom company Telia.

- According to the MarineTraffic ship tracking service, the China-flagged ship Yi Peng 3 was close to the spot where the cable between Sweden and Lithuania was severed. The same ship later moved across the area where the C-Lion1 cable between Germany and Finland was damaged.

- Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said on November 19 that governments in the Baltic Sea region learned from the mistakes of the investigation into the damage to the Balticconnector pipeline and are ready to stop any ship if it is suspected of damaging data cables.

- The Danish Navy later confirmed its presence near the Yi Peng 3, but would not comment on reports of it being stopped or detained.

- The damage was repaired at the end of last week.

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