Estonia to hold emergency meeting due to damage to 3 communication cables
Photo: Estonia is concerned about cable damage (flickr by Shane MacClure)
The Estonian government will hold an emergency meeting tonight due to damage to three communication cables at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland. Sabotage has become more frequent, according to Postimees.
According to the agency, 2 communication cables between Estonia and Finland, owned by the Elisa group, have been damaged, and one communication cable owned by CITIC Telecom has been damaged.
According to the companies that provide communication services via the cables, the outages do not have a significant impact on end users, and all services and communications between Estonia and Finland are working.
The cause of the outages is currently unknown. The cable owners are engaged in repair work, while the relevant authorities are also investigating what could have caused the malfunctions.
Estonia's external connections are duplicated several times, meaning that in the event of a breakdown of the submarine cables, alternative existing sea or land cables going to Latvia can be used to ensure cross-border Internet connectivity and the functioning of various services.
Measurements made by system operators Elering and Fingrid show the location of the damage to the Estonian-Finnish EstLink 2 connection in the submarine part of the connection on the Finnish side. This is an estimate based on cable measurements. The location of the alleged fault has not yet been physically examined.
Earlier it was reported that the Finnish police are considering the involvement of a foreign vessel in the breakdown of the Estlink 2 cable connecting Finland and Estonia.
In particular, 2 vessels were spotted there. One of them passed through at about the same time as the Estlink 2 emergency shutdown.
