Paramaribo, 10 November – Surinamese national telecommunications provider Telesur confirmed that roughly 20,000 of its subscribers lost access to voice, internet and data services for an extended period on Sunday 8 November, after a third-party construction contractor accidentally severed a core underground fibre optic trunk line during excavation work along Indira Gandhiweg. The incident marks the second consecutive weekend that widespread, service-disrupting network damage caused by external parties has impacted the telecom operator’s user base. The damage occurred when excavation crews working at a nearby construction site for a new building struck the high-capacity main fibre optic cable, triggering cascading service failures across a large swathe of the surrounding service area. Telesur’s operational leadership noted that the past several weeks have seen a sharp uptick in avoidable harm to its critical digital infrastructure, extending beyond careless digging incidents to include deliberate acts of vandalism targeting fibre lines and motor vehicle collisions that have toppled multiple telecom transmission towers. These recurring disruptions have not only created major inconvenience for residential and business subscribers who rely on stable connectivity for remote work, education, emergency communications and daily personal use, but have also driven up unbudgeted, substantial repair and restoration costs for the firm. Telesur has formally stated it will pursue full legal and financial recourse against all responsible parties to recoup the full value of these rising recovery expenses. As a proactive preventive measure, the operator is issuing a public advisory to all construction contractors, project managers and property developers operating near public roadways to reach out to Telesur before commencing any excavation work, to obtain accurate mapping of underground cable routes and avoid accidental strikes. The company added that its technical teams prioritize rapid restoration of full service at all times, and it deeply recognizes the severe negative impact unplanned outages have on users who depend on consistent telecommunications access for their daily livelihoods.