Italy Suffers Widespread Internet Outages

Italy Suffers Widespread Internet Outages
The TIM logo at its headquarters in Rome on Nov. 22, 2021. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)
Reuters
2/5/2023
Updated:
2/6/2023

ROME—Thousands of Telecom Italia (TIM) customers across Italy complained of internet outages and glitches on Sunday which the company blamed on problems with an international link.

Users from the northern city of Milan to the Sicilian capital Palermo reported problems, with the issue mainly focused on fixed-line internet services.

Some soccer fans bemoaned interruptions to their streaming of the Serie A game between Spezia and league leaders Napoli.

“An international interconnection problem impacting the service at national level was detected. Analyses are underway to resolve the problem,” a TIM spokesperson said.

Italy’s national cybersecurity agency said a “massive attack using an already circulating ransomware” has been detected by the computer security incident response team, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.

TIM, the former national telecoms monopoly, is at the center of a takeover struggle, with private equity group KKR having made a non-binding bid to buy its network.