Rise in sabotage incidents is putting critical services at risk, say telecoms companies

Summary

NATO has been warned of potential global internet blackouts amid a surge in suspected Russian sabotage of subsea fibre optic cables.

Telecom giants like Vodafone, Telefonica, and Orange urged UK, EU, and NATO officials to classify the undersea cable network as critical infrastructure.

Since October 2023, at least 11 cables have been damaged in the Baltic Sea, with over 50 Russian vessels spotted nearby. The UK is monitoring the Russian spy ship Yantar.

Officials also raised concerns about Chinese activity near Taiwan and called for increased surveillance and international cooperation.

  • atzanteolEnglish
    71·
    5 days ago

    Starlink routes through ground-based infrastructure though. If you separated England, for example, from the world then starlink is also going to be either separated or badly impacted in England.

    • j4k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 days ago

      Where are you getting that from? If this were a real constraint, Ukrainian systems would be a joke, as would those on Starship, planes, boats, etc. The low orbital infrastructure is specifically to ensure high throughput. Some offloading is logical in some circumstances, but not as a constraint.

      • atzanteolEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        Mmm - seems there is some satellite->satellite routing in addition to the ground stations. It does degrade latency though.