Jones told The Register that attacks range from simply chopping through fiber-optic cables in an underground duct, to lifting the cover of an access chamber, pouring in petrol, and setting the whole lot alight.
The motives for these attacks are thought to be simply vandalism or people with a grudge against a particular provider, rather than being a case of network operators aiming to sabotage their rivals, Jones claimed.
“You find instances where a chamber containing equipment for multiple providers has been accessed, but only one provider has been attacked,” he said, adding that it could be ex-employees with a grudge and that some attacks have even been 5G protesters simply targeting any digital infrastructure.
fiber
Huh. It's The Register, which is a British piece of media, with a London-based author writing about an event in the UK and they're using the traditionally-American English spelling. Maybe the UK is going towards "fiber" rather than "fibre".
hits Google N-grams
Ah hah. Yup, apparently it's at about 50-50, but the majority in British English just switched to "fiber" within the last ten years.