European satellite companies have for months been experiencing interference attempts originating from Russia, leading to interrupted broadcasts and even violent programming sent to a children’s television channel, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.
At least three of French operator Eutelsat SA’s satellites have been seriously affected since the middle of March, and the disruption continued until at least until the end of last month, a person familiar with the matter said.
On March 28 and April 17 the interference replaced the programming of Walt Disney Co’s children’s entertainment channel BabyTV with war videos in Russian. As a consequence, Dutch cable operator Ziggo removed BabyTV from its offerings until early last month.
Photo: Reuters
“The interference has been clearly identified as coming from large earth stations and should therefore be recorded and monitored by the Russian Federation authorities,” France’s Agence Nationale des Frequences said in a letter to the Radio Regulations Board, an international telecommunications watchdog based in Geneva, that was seen by Bloomberg.
A spokesman for the International Telecommunication Union, the UN agency which coordinates the global sharing of radio frequencies and satellite orbits, said the reports would be discussed at the next Radio Regulations Board meeting from June 24 to 28.
The Russian radio frequency center did not respond to a request for comment and Agence Nationale des Frequences declined to comment.
“Eutelsat Group is fully aware of deliberate radio frequency interference from external sources, which has had an intermittent impact on some services,” a spokesman for the French company said in an e-mailed statement. “Working in cooperation with the appropriate regulatory authorities, Eutelsat Group teams are fully engaged on this issue.”
Amid its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been trying to disrupt several European communication systems as it tests the preparedness of the EU and NATO. In April, Estonia and Finland accused Moscow of jamming GPS signals, disrupting flights and maritime traffic.
Eutelsat satellites are not the only ones that have been targeted, and the effects have also been felt as far as Ukraine and Portugal, the person said, asking not to be identified because the details ar not public.
Swedish satellites have also been targeted with broadcasts originating from Moscow, Kaliningrad and Crimea, they said.
Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have presented complaints similar to France’s to the Radio Regulations Board, documents seen by Bloomberg said.
Already in March, the French agency had written to its Russian counterpart to complain about the interference.
“By means of measurements, with the support of a dedicated system for interference detection, we found that the uplink transmission of this interfering carrier originates from the area of Moscow on the territory of your Administration,” it said in a separate letter seen by Bloomberg.
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