Undersea Cable Cuts Kill Internet To Parts Of Asia, Mideast
Undersea internet cables in the Red Sea have been cut, disrupting internet access to parts of Asia and the Middle East. The cause of the cuts weren't immediately clear, though China does have a shiny new deep-sea cable cutter (which we're sure a bunch of countries have too).
Undersea cables are a major component of the internet, along with satellite connections and land-based cables, with internet providers having multiple access points through which to reroute traffic if necessary.
According to Microsoft, the Mideast "may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea," though it did not elaborate.
According to internet monitor NetKBlocks, a "series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries," which is says includes India and Pakistan. It blamed "failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia."
In August of 2022, the 'Saudi Vision Cable' was laid near Jeddah.The Vision Cable spans 1,160km connecting Jeddah, Yanbu, Dibba and Haql, the major subsea hubs in Red Sea cities of Saudi Arabia, according to Submarine Cable Networks.
Beyond that, the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 cable (say that three times fast) is operated by Tata Communications - part of the Indian conglomerate, while the India-Middle East-Western Europe cable is operated by another consortium overseen by Alcatel-Lucent.
Pakistan Telecommunications Co. Ltd., a telecommunication giant in that country, noted that the cuts had taken place in a statement on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the disruption and authorities there did not respond to a request for comment.
In the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, internet users on the country’s state-owned Du and Etisalat networks complained of slower internet speeds. ThPost too long. Click here to view the full text.
