Authorities in Far East Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula said Wednesday that urgent upgrades to an undersea cable would cause a regionwide internet outage for at least five days starting next week.
The regional government said the state telecommunications provider Rostelecom would carry out “large-scale” work on the Sakhalin-Kamchatka fiber-optic line from Sept. 25 to 29, upgrading land-based infrastructure to prevent longer outages if the cable erodes or is damaged.
Banks, emergency services, supermarkets and other essential services will switch to using satellite communications for the duration of the outage, the government said.
“Residents won’t be left without essential food even if they forget to withdraw cash,” said Yulia Morozova, head of the regional government.
Separately, the Kamchatka region’s Digital Ministry reported cable damage further inland on Wednesday that disrupted service in four of Kamchatka’s 11 districts. Repair crews were dispatched, but no timeline for service restoration was given.
Regions across Russia have faced regular internet disruptions since May amid an uptick in Ukrainian drone attacks. Authorities say shutting down mobile internet helps prevent drones from being guided or receiving targeting coordinates via civilian networks.
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