The engineers of Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC) and the crew of the sea fibre optic cable repair ship, completed the reconnection of the sea fibre optic cable on Friday, the 28th of February, as reported by representatives of LVRTC.
The centre notes that the functionality of the cable, equipment and connections in Ventspils and Gotland have been tested and the service to LVRTC customers has now been completely restored.
A new cable section several hundred metres long, connected to the sleeves, is inserted between the damaged sections. The connection work took more than 30 hours, as it was necessary to connect not only the optical fibres, but also all the layers of the cable, ensuring sealing, as well as the fact that the protective layers continue to provide different levels of protection against physical damage.
Work is still ongoing as the cable has to be lowered to the bottom of the sea. At the moment, the weather conditions are favourable for work and it is expected that the works will be completely completed in the course of today.
Representatives of LVRTC also expressed satisfaction that they managed to repair the damage and restore the service to customers within a month.
Ģirts Ozols, Chairman of the Board of LVRTC, points out that cable damage has been a good practice for ensuring business continuity, which has clearly outlined to LVRTC and the company’s customers how important it is to ensure their reservation and preparedness for various crisis situations when planning communications infrastructure, as well as data transmission routes.
During the damage to the cable, end users did not feel any interruptions in communications, and this has been made possible by the thoughtful actions and preventive actions of LVRTC and electronic communications operators, emphasizes Ozols.
LETA has already reported that in the early morning of the 26th of January, 2025, the LVRTC undersea fiber optic cable in the Baltic Sea at the section Ventspils Gotland was damaged. Damage to the cable was found in Swedish economic waters about 130 km from the coast of Latvia.
On the night of the 20th of February, the end of the damaged cable was lifted out of the Baltic Sea towards Gotland, while on the evening of the 26th of February, the end of the damaged cable was also lifted out of the sea towards Ventspils.
In connection with the cable damage, the Swedish authorities had detained the Vezhen dry cargo ship flying the Maltese flag.
The Bulgarian shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgares, which owns the ship, denied causing deliberate damage to the cable, and the Swedish prosecutor’s office later rejected the possibility of sabotage in the cable damage and announced that it was releasing the vessel Vezhen, while acknowledging that it had caused the damage.
Swedish prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist explained that the damage to the cables
was caused by a combination of adverse conditions – weather conditions, deficiencies in the equipment and lack of shipping knowledge.
At the same time, the Latvian State Police continues to investigate in criminal proceedings, which are qualified under three articles of the Criminal Law, including on harm. At present, the investigation has not found any information that would have led to the termination or retraining of criminal proceedings.
Irrespective of the prosecution’s conclusions on the reasons for the damage to the cable, the LVRTC property has been damaged, so the company will begin the process of recovering damages for the broken cable of the vessel “Vezhen”. At the same time, the amount of losses is not yet determined, as it will be affected by the purchase of materials necessary for cable repair, the cost of the repair vessel and maintenance, as well as other LVRTC expenses for cable damage prevention.
LVRTC is the main terrestrial broadcasting network operator for radio and television programmes in the country. LVRTC manages the state-owned shares of the mobile operator “Latvijas Mobilais telefons” (LMT).