Third Undersea Internet Cable Damaged in Mideast

February 2, 2008

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1st Cable Cut - “What’s the back up plan?”

2nd Cable Cut - “What’s going on here?”

3rd Cable Cut - “What are the odds of this being a simple coincidence?”

Update 02/04/08 - A 4th Cable Is Now Being Reported Cut Story Link

Update 02/03/08 - No Ships Were Present When Cable Cut

No ships were present when two marine cables carrying much of the Middle East’s internet traffic were severed, Egypt’s Ministry of Communications has said, contrary to earlier speculation about the causes of the cut.

The ministry had originally stated that a ship dropping its anchor on the two key cables was most likely responsible for Wednesday’s cut in service that robbed Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India of most of their internet connections.

“A marine transport committee investigated the traffic of ships in the area, 12 hours before and after the malfunction, where the cables are located to figure out the possibility of being cut by a passing vessel and found out there were no passing ships at that time,” said the statement.

The ministry added that the location, 5 miles from the port of Alexandria, was in a restricted area so ships would not have been allowed there to begin with.

Internet connectivity in Egypt had now reached 70-80 per cent of its previous rate due to rerouted connections through alternate cables in the Far East and to Italy, added the statement.

Two ships have sailed from France and Italy at the request of cable owners Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) and the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) and will begin repairs which are expected to take several days.

The ministry estimated that full service in Egypt would not be restored for another ten days.

Original Story

A third undersea Internet cable has been damaged in the Middle East, adding to the disruption in online services after two other lines were cut earlier this week, the cable operating firm said.

The Falcon cable was cut 56 kilometres (35 miles) from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to its owner, FLAG Telecom, which is part of India’s Reliance Communications.

The repair ship had been notified and was expected to arrive at the site in the next few days, the company said on its website.

Flag Telecom owns another cable that was damaged off Egypt on Wednesday. A repair ship was expected to arrive by Tuesday to restore that cable and repairs were expected to take a week, the company said.

The outages have disrupted business across the Middle East and South Asia, including in India, where businesses said it may take up to 15 days to return to normal.

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