Three cables, as thick as your arm, have been severed in as many days in and around the Middle East. The cables are submarine high speed Internet cables which are essential to a developing economy such as India. The disruptions have caused massive interruptions to business in India as well as affecting countries like the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Curiously, a website which monitors Internet traffic around the globe now has Iran ominously showing a 100% drop in usage, is this evidence of an Internet blackout in Iran? The website in question seems to be showing zero internet usage inside the country...
How did three of these huge cables, which are re-enforced with armored steel, snap inside such a short period of time?
Internet traffic has now been re-routed around East Asia and over the pacific to get to the United States and Europe. Repair crews are being sent and normal might not be back until as far off as the 12th of February.
CAIRO - Damage to undersea Internet cables in the Mediterranean that hit business across the Middle East and South Asia was not caused by ships, Egypt’s communications ministry said on Sunday, ruling out earlier reports.
The transport ministry added that footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.
‘The ministry’s maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area,’ a statement said.
‘The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships,’ the statement added.
Two cables were damaged earlier this week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to Internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia.
A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said.
Earlier reports said that the damage had been caused by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because of bad weather.
Egypt’s communication and information technology ministry said it would report its findings to the owners of the two damaged Mediterranean cables, FLAG Telecom and SEA-ME-WE4.
A repair ship was expected to begin work to fix the two Mediterranean cables on Tuesday.
Sources:
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/asia.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7222536.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/01/internet.outage/
