When a few cables cut get, you can sort of say it was an accident, right? What would you say when a total of five have been cut? That ain’t no accident. 1.7 million Web surfers were affected in the UAE yesterday when a fifth cable was mysteriously cut. The locations of each cable that has been cut is as follows: “SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.”
But, then again, inclement weather could have caused that tanker to drag its anchor across the bottom and render everything FUBAR.
On another note, FLAG Telecom has been begun repairing the damaged cable in the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and France. FLAG also stated that a repair ship has begun work on two cables near Egypt, the FLAG Europe-Asia and the SEAMeWe-4. The damaged cable in the Mediterranean should be fully operational within six to seven days, said FLAG. To ensure future cuts don’t occur, FLAG has also begun laying down a new cable that is said to be more resilient, but they wouldn’t elaborate on what that means and it will, apparently, take months to set.
Cable damage hits 1.7m Internet users in UAE [Khaleej Times]
FLAG Telecom: New Internet cable being laid in Mediterranean after cut off Egypt coast [The Age]