The article leads with severed fibres in Marseille, France which are causing widespread issues, but they were severed on land, not subsea. The article title has been updated since it was posted here.
The two severed subsea fibres mentioned in the title are under water and route mainland UK-Shetland and Shetland-Faroe, and although that’s very problematic for Shetland, the disruption isn’t widespread.
I know this is me being paranoid, but wild conspiracy theories is what the internet is for: two weeks ago someone sabotaged the German train infrastructure cutting down two internet cables [1] and now land cables on France are cut at the same time that subsea cables are cut in the UK.
It is entirely possible that all three incidents are unrelated, but given the current tensions I wouldn't outright discard a more sinister reason. If someone were testing the weak points of European infrastructure, I think it would look pretty much like this.
I don’t disagree with the on-land severing being sabotage - repair to the fibres in France was delayed while police gathered evidence, implying sabotage.
The subsea cuts - I’m less sure about those. It’s fairly clear from the cable maps only Shetland would be affected. The Faroes have two other routes out, and mainland UK has a multitude.
(I edited my comment a couple of times, so you may have replied to an earlier edit. I did originally start speculating about sabotage, then decided against it, aiming instead to simply clarify the article’s title. Also, apt username, let’s hope you are!)
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The article leads with severed fibres in Marseille, France which are causing widespread issues, but they were severed on land, not subsea. The article title has been updated since it was posted here.
The two severed subsea fibres mentioned in the title are under water and route mainland UK-Shetland and Shetland-Faroe, and although that’s very problematic for Shetland, the disruption isn’t widespread.
I know this is me being paranoid, but wild conspiracy theories is what the internet is for: two weeks ago someone sabotaged the German train infrastructure cutting down two internet cables [1] and now land cables on France are cut at the same time that subsea cables are cut in the UK.
It is entirely possible that all three incidents are unrelated, but given the current tensions I wouldn't outright discard a more sinister reason. If someone were testing the weak points of European infrastructure, I think it would look pretty much like this.
[1] https://www.dw.com/en/sabotage-cause-of-massive-train-disrup...
I don’t disagree with the on-land severing being sabotage - repair to the fibres in France was delayed while police gathered evidence, implying sabotage.
The subsea cuts - I’m less sure about those. It’s fairly clear from the cable maps only Shetland would be affected. The Faroes have two other routes out, and mainland UK has a multitude.
(I edited my comment a couple of times, so you may have replied to an earlier edit. I did originally start speculating about sabotage, then decided against it, aiming instead to simply clarify the article’s title. Also, apt username, let’s hope you are!)