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Tuesday 5 February 2008

Why are undersea telecoms cables being damaged (update)

I blogged earlier today that "Is it just coincidence that in the last week four major undersea telecoms cables have been damaged thus cutting internet connectivity to Egypt, Gulf Arab states and south Asia including India? Cables have now been damaged in the Mediterranean and off the coasts of Dubai and Qatar."

Tonight I read on Sky News that "Firms in the Middle East and India say they are facing big losses after undersea cables were cut, disrupting internet services.
The damage - under the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Egypt - could take a week to repair. It has cost India half its bandwidth.and is hitting the country's lucrative outsourcing industry. The cables carry computer traffic from Europe. Smaller firms which don't have back-up systems have been the worst affected. Many have said they will lose business if full internet access is not quickly restored... he Mediterranean Sea cables, which lie north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria, snapped on Wednesday. The Internet Service Providers' Association of India said the country had lost half its bandwidth. TeleGeography, a US research group that tracks submarine cables, said the disruption reduced the capacity on the route from the Mideast to Europe by 75%."


As Goldfinger said to James Bond - "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence but the third time is enemy action". So what is four times?

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