Internet Disrupted across Asia and Middle East as Undersea Cables Cut Again

19 dec 2008

Internet connections across the Middle East and Asian countries has been seriously disrupted after submarine cables were severed.

The undersea cables linking Europe and Asia, which were damaged by ships early this year, have reportedly been cut again causing severe disruption to internet and voice traffic in the Middle East and other parts of Asia.

India seems to have been particularly hit with around 82% of voice traffic getting affected. I have been experiencing slow connection speed on my Airtel Broadband line since yesterday so this could be a possible reason.

France Telecom is estimating that the cables would be repaired by December 25th but the Internet traffic can only be restored by December 31st.

How Undersea Cables are Repaired

Here’s an animation showing how the damaged undersea cables are repaired by ships:

http://www.intowindows.com Windows Guy

I was wodering how come my connection speed has decreased drastically since last evening.I hope they will fix soon.Thanks for the info.
http://resourcesandmoney.blogspot.com charles palma

How can they detect the fault of an underwater cable? It is easy to repair but its hard to determine which part is causing the disruption.
http://www.techieblues.com Vikas SN

Hmmm that is why even I am experiencing low speeds on BSNL these days I guess.
http://www.propertywala.com/ Saurabh Gupta

Same here, slow since yesterday on Airtel.
http://doshiamit.net Amit Doshi

That explains a lot. Internet access has been terrible on the MTNL ADSL in the office and at my house with Tata Indicom since yesterday morning. The Hathaway line in the office seems unaffected. And it seems like the Airtel Mobile Office connectin on my cell isnt working at all. Thought something like this had happened.
http://hugrohan.tumblr.com Rohan

So this is what the reason, for what I have been getting the slow browsing as well as download speed.Well,I guess,I should stop blaming my ISP for disrupt changes in my Internet service from now on!
Thanks Amit for the news and nice Animation, wish I could see a Happy New Year without cable problems.
http://www.talkfree7.blogspot.com Piyush

Wonderful animation, how did you got this ?
http://www.sarv007.blogspot.com/ sarv007

I thought that again monkeys have played with wires…of my BSNL TelePhone……
http://thetalkouttrojans.blogspot.com/ நிமல் – NiMaL

Even I (in Colombo, Sri Lanka) have been experiencing slow connection speed since last night. Don’t know whether this could be a reason.
krunal

thnks Amit by showing the animation….
http://8ate.blogspot.com/ Vinayak

My Airtel connection speed was also running slow last evening!
Purpz

awww… so that explains my slow connection speed since yesterday.. i’m here in saudi arabia.. thanks for the info, amit! i guess i’ll just have to bear with it.. it’s better than nothing.. i’m still lucky it wasn’t cut off..
clark

here is a great site explaining in details how undersea cables are repaired :
http://www.orange.com/sirius/dossiers_anim/cables_sous_marins/index_en.html
James

Thanks for that informational animal of a blue cable with a pair of scissors attached. It gave absolutely no hint of how the cables are fixed… it didn’t show how they are found, cut, picked up or joined. You might as well have just said “dodgy cable is left in place, but made longer”.
Adam

They probably have returns built into the cables every so often so they can determine in which section lies the fault. Then as presented in the animation, the pull the cables up from the bottom and repair them the entire section.
http://techcreeze.blogspot.com Techcreeze

That may be the reason, I m not able to connect Internet through dial up connection provided by NTC from Nepal.
http://www.desicolours.com DC

Yes,

Even My net was slow since Friday. I heard it takes minimum of one week and maximum of one month to clear all the things.
Apinder

Same here. Low speed on Airtel.
http://computersservicing.blogspot.com/ venkat

I surf on Cable internet which is already less speed ,now struggling to open a single webpage.
matthew

Windows Guy, The answer to your question is this: When there is a fault in an electrical cable, there are “reflection” waves that travel back down the wire of origin. These reflections are caused by the resistance of normal wear or damage. By carefully measuring the time it takes for a pulse to go down the cable, be reflected, and come back. We can use our knowlege of the speed of electricity through wire, and calculate the exact (and I mean VERY exact) location of the damage! Hope that helps!
Tito

locating faults has been doable for many many years whether for fiber or coax.
look up time domain reflectometry or optical TDR on the web. you will understand.
essentially you send a pulse and if there is a break an echo comes back. roundtrip allows u to calculate location.
http://jamy015.nl Jamy

It sounds really weird, but my speed first drastically decreased and then increased up to about a megabit from normal!
ced

Slow here in Seattle too. Probably not related but the timing is the same.
http://www.unlockedcellphne.blogspot.com kam

that’s a pretty awesome animation of the repair of cables. They really need their internet in saudi arabia specially women so this needs to be fixed asap lol
Taj

That’s why I am also experiencing slow speed problem on my GTTPL broadband conection. Any one know’s how much time it will take to resolve this problem????
http://www.eahp.com Eberhard

Why is Zambia on that map? It is a country nowhere near where the cable was cut.

Technology, Software and Internet

Internet Disrupted across Asia and Middle East as Undersea Cables Cut Again

How Undersea Cables are Repaired

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