This Article is Sponsored by Phicus
In the Basque Country region of Spain, a cow became entangled in fibre optic cables. With the struggle, he broke the line and plunged thousands of people into an unexpected digital blackout. It was not a rural joke or a picturesque anecdote.
It was the confirmation of a structural problem: the precariousness of technological infrastructures in areas far from urban centers. A problem that does not distinguish between the so-called first world and the rest.
“This is a common thing here”
By: Gabriel E. Levy B.
It happened in the region of Enkarterri, in northern Spain.
For more than a week, nearly three thousand inhabitants of small Basque municipalities were left without internet service. The cause? A fiber optic cable hanging at a low height was hooked by a cow, which in its desperation to let go ended up tearing it off completely.
The event was recorded on video and disseminated on social networks, where it did not take long to go viral.
Local authorities acknowledged that this was not an isolated case. In recent months, there had already been several cuts due to similar situations: animals, tractors, fallen trees.
In all cases, the underlying cause was the same: exposed infrastructures, without protection, at the mercy of the environment and without clear regulations that guarantee their durability.
The aged wooden poles, the half-height cables and the non-existence of underground ducts turn every day into a digital Russian roulette.
“This looks like Comanche territory”
The image of a cow knocking over internet access may seem anecdotal, even comical. But behind it there is a reality that is far from caricature.
The digital disconnection had severe consequences. Families without access to banking services, students without classes, elderly without remote medical care. A week was enough to lay bare the dependence we have today on connectivity and how unprepared we are to protect it.
The problem lies in the way infrastructure has been deployed in rural areas: patched, urgent, without long-term planning. Rapid access to services was prioritized, but not their sustainability.
Overhead lines, which decades ago may have seemed sufficient, are now vulnerable to any accident. And while cities evolve towards more robust and protected networks, rural regions are frozen in precarious technologies.
As the urban planner and expert in rural development Jordi Borja points out, “the digitalisation of the territory requires more than connectivity: it requires territorial justice”. It is not enough to arrive with the signal; its permanence, its quality and its equity must be guaranteed.
“In Latin America this would be just any other Tuesday”
If in Spain, a country with high rates of technological development, a cow can isolate an entire region for days, what happens in many Latin American countries borders on daily tragicomedy.
In rural regions of Mexico, Colombia, Argentina or Peru, interruptions of internet service due to structural failures, animals, storms or simple domestic accidents are the daily bread.
In the Bolivian highlands or in the valleys of Guatemala, it is common to see telecommunication cables crossing the streets like messy vines, attached to rotting wooden poles or hanging between adobe houses.
The difference lies in the naturalization of the problem. While in Europe the cow incident becomes national news and provokes parliamentary debates, in Latin America it would hardly raise an eyebrow.
Because there, when it’s not a cow, it’s a tree, or a storm, or institutional oblivion. And when all that fails, there is always informal sabotage, cable theft, improvised connections. Connectivity in many areas of the global south is not a guaranteed right, but an intermittent luxury.
“Rural infrastructure: the great technological pending”
Beyond the case of the Basque cow, the incident reveals a problem common to many countries: the disconnect between technological promises and the reality of their implementation.
There is talk of smart cities, 5G, artificial intelligence, but the basic pillars of connectivity are still weak in vast areas of the territory. And it’s not just about developing countries. Even in nations considered pioneers in digitalization, rural environments are often left behind.
This phenomenon, which authors such as Manuel Castells have called “the geography of informational exclusion”, is not accidental. It responds to an expansion model based on immediate profitability. Densely populated urban centres receive priority attention; the dispersed peoples, on the other hand, are off the investment radar. Thus, the digital divide is not only a question of access, but also of quality, stability, and dignity.
The solution is not only to invest in new technologies, but also to reconfigure the infrastructure model. Bet on underground ducts, weather-resistant networks, constant maintenance and regulations that prevent abandonment. Because while technological discourses advance at full speed, there are towns where a cow can still disconnect the present and the future.
In conclusion, The Incident in the Basque Country, starring a cow and a cable, is much more than a rural anecdote.
It is an alert. The digital infrastructure, which underpins our daily lives, needs planning, investment and territorial justice. In Spain, and even more so in Latin America, guaranteeing stable connectivity in rural areas remains a pending challenge that conditions equity and development.
References:
- Borja, J. (2003). The conquered city. Alianza Editorial.
- Castells, M. (2001). The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Vol. 1. Siglo XXI Editores.
- Vommaro, G. (2015). Pro World: The New Argentine Right. Editorial Planeta.
- El País (April 20, 2025). “A cow pulls the cable and the future of a Biscayan region is shaken.” Available in: elpais.com
