Recent attack at the Olympics disrupts French broadband internet connections

Connections to Paris, where the Olympic Games are being held this week, and the Games themselves are not affected, said a spokesman for Olympic telecommunications partner Orange SA. Nevertheless, this is the second act of sabotage of French infrastructure in recent days as the world flocks to the capital. Coordinated fires on French railway lines have already led to disruptions to train services ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday.

Five lines belonging to the telecommunications company SFR were down between 1am and 3am Paris time. Teams are working to repair them, a spokesperson for the network operator said. The network operator is using alternative routes to serve its customers. However, rerouting traffic could result in slower speeds.

Hear a photo of one of these cable coupes that night…

We show a little solidarity with our fellow brothers who touch us. This is unacceptable.

Netalis complained that this would be possible in the next few days. @lauredlr @Marina_Ferrari @GDarmanin pic.twitter.com/D8zqa2l72e

— Nicolas Guillaume (@nguillam) July 29, 2024

Other providers, including Free and Iliad SA’s Netalis, also said in social media posts that they were affected. Netalis CEO Nicolas Guillaume said the telecoms company successfully rerouted traffic to backup networks early Monday. French cloud provider OVHcloud is also working to reroute traffic following the incident, which resulted in slower connections between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, a spokesman said.

A representative of the Paris public prosecutor’s office said that they were analyzing the situation together with regional authorities and could lead any investigations. The Paris public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the attacks on the railway last week. Agence France-Presse had previously reported on the damage to the fiber optic cables, citing a police source.

In the run-up to the Olympics, France is on high alert for possible acts of sabotage or violence related to the Games. In Paris, around 45,000 police and military personnel patrolled the barriers around the Seine that had been erected ahead of the opening ceremony, which was centred on the river. Video cameras throughout the city use controversial artificial intelligence to analyse potential threats from the population in real time.

A similar incident in 2022 led to a criminal investigation after long-distance cables connecting parts of Paris to Lyon, Strasbourg and Lille were severed in several places, causing internet outages.