2008 submarine cable disruption
The 2008 submarine cable disruption refers to three separate incidents of major damage to submarine optical communication cables around the world. The first incident caused damage involving up to five high-speed Internet submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East from 23 January to 4 February 2008, causing internet disruptions and slowdowns for users in the Middle East and India.[1] The incident called into doubt the safety of the undersea portion of the Internet cable system.[2]
In late February there was another outage, this time affecting a fiber optic connection between Singapore and Jakarta.[3]
On 19 December,
Cables damaged
23 January
Although it was not reported at the time, there was a cut off of
30 January
On 30 January 2008, news agencies reported Internet services were widely disrupted in the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent following damage to the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG Telecom cables in the Mediterranean Sea.[1] The damage to the two systems occurred separately several kilometers apart near Alexandria.[7]
While the respective contributions of the two cable systems to this
Effects
Disruptions of 70 percent in Egypt and 60 percent in India were reported, along with problems in Afghanistan-AWCC, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Maldives, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.[12][14][15]
1.7 million Internet users in the
On 1 February 2008,
1 February
Two days after the initial break, it was reported that the FALCON cable was cut between
3 February
On 3 February 2008,
4 February
On 4 February 2008 the Khaleej Times reported that SEA-ME-WE 4 had also been damaged at another location, near Penang, Malaysia. The date of this damage was not given.[1]
19 December
On 19 December 2008
Cause of cable breaks
Anchors
These disruptions are attributed by some officials to accidents involving ships' anchors,[10][12] but reviews of surveillance footage of the area by Egyptian authorities revealed no ships in the area.[9] However, FLAG Telecom indicated that the cut to the Falcon cable between the United Arab Emirates and Oman was caused by an abandoned anchor weighing five to six tons.[31]
In mid April two ships were impounded in connection with the FLAG Telecom outages near Dubai. They were charged with improperly dropping anchor in the area of the cuts.[32]
The 19 December breaks were reported to be caused either by bad weather or a ship's anchor, though the bad weather was just a possibility and the anchor a much more likely occurrence.[28]
Common occurrence
According to Stephen Beckert, a senior analyst at TeleGeography, the events are far less exceptional than they seem because cable cuts happen all the time. Beckert argues that "only the first two cuts had any serious impact on the Internet," and this drew public attention to other cable cuts that would not normally have been newsworthy. According to Beckert, cable cuts happen "on average once every three days." He further noted that there are 25 large ships that do nothing but fix cable cuts and bends, and that such cuts are usually the result of cables rubbing against rocks on the sea floor.[33]
According to Global Marine Systems, "Undersea cable damage is hardly rare—indeed, more than 50 repair operations were mounted in the Atlantic alone last year". While a cut in a cable crossing the Atlantic has "no significant effect" due to the many alternate cables, only a handful of Internet cables serve the Middle East. These disruptions are only noticeable because of the small number of cables.[34]
Conspiracy theories
Since
On 6 February, theories that the disruption in these cables was related to an economic confrontation between the United States and Iran appeared in an opinion piece on Dow Jones Marketwatch.
According to this sabotage theory, the damaged cables and the resulting Internet disruptions would destroy confidence in the ability of the
On Monday, 18 February, the
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f "Cable damage hits one million Internet Users". Khaleej News. 2008-02-04. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ "Ruptures call safety of Internet cables into question". International Herald Tribune. 2008-02-05. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
- ^ "Internet capacity down to 10%". The Jakarta Post. 2008-02-29. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2008.
- ^ Fried, Malcolm; Klemming, Lars (2008-12-19). "Severed Cables in Mediterranean Disrupt Communication (Update4)". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
- ^ "GO submarine cable fault part of wider disruption between Italy and Egypt". timesofmalta.com. 2008-12-19. Archived from the original on 25 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
- ^ a b "Mediterranean submarine cables are cut, affecting internet". Telecom Paper. 19 December 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
- The Associated Press. 2008-02-05. Archivedfrom the original on 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
- ^ Zmijewski, Earl (2008-01-30). "Mediterranean Cable Break". Renesys Blog. Renesys. Archived from the original on 2008-02-03. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ a b c "Ships did not cause Internet cable damage". Khaleej Times Online. 2008-02-03. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
- ^ a b "Cable damage hits Internet connectivity". The Times of India. 2008-01-31. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Ships did not cut internet cables: Egypt". ABC News. 2008-02-04. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
- ^ a b c "Severed cables disrupt Internet". BBC News. 2008-01-31. Archived from the original on 31 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ Agence France Press (2008-01-31). "Indian outsourcing sector hit by Internet disruption". Archived from the original on 3 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Cable Break Causes Wide Internet Outage". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2008-02-01. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ^ Minivannews.com (2008-02-04). "Broken Submarine Cable Affects Raajje Online And Wataniya". Minivannews.com. Archived from the original on 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ "Details for Asia /// Internet Traffic Report". Archived from the original on 8 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
- ^ Dylan Bowman.Flag plays down net blackout conspiracy theories Archived 2008-12-27 at the Wayback Machine, ArabianBusiness.com, 4 February 2008.
- ^ a b "Who cuts undersea cables in the Middle East?". Al Bawaba. 2008-02-05. Archived from the original on 7 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
- ^ a b "ATTENTION: Iran is not disconnected!". Archived from the original on 2008-02-07.
- ^ a b "Effects of Fibre Outage through Mediterranean". Retrieved 9 February 2008.
- ^ "VNSL restores services after cable break". 2008-02-01. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ "Flag Telecom cut cable update 1". 2008-02-06. Archived from the original on 4 February 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
- ^ "Flag Telecom cut cable update 2". 2008-02-07. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008. Retrieved 8 February 2008.
- ^ "Anchor found at cable cut site". CNET Networks. 2008-02-06. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 8 February 2008.
- ^ "Internet problems continue with fourth cable break". 2008-02-03. Archived from the original on 11 February 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
- ^ "4th Undersea Cable Break: Between Qatar and UAE". 2008-02-04. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
- ^ "Three undersea cables cut: traffic greatly disturbed between Europe and Asia/Near East zone". Press release. France Telecom. 19 December 2008. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ a b c James Regan (2008-12-20). "UPDATE 3-Undersea cable breaks cut Internet in Mideast, Asia". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
- ^ Fried, Malcolm & Lars Klemming (2008-12-19). "Severed Cables in Mediterranean Disrupt Communication". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- Times of Malta. 2008-12-19. Archivedfrom the original on 25 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ "Breaking News / Infotech". 2008-02-07. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ Rich Miller (2008-04-13). "Ships Impounded in Middle East Cable Cuts". Archived from the original on 2008-04-17. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
- ^ Singel, Ryan (2008-02-06). "Cable Cut Fever Grips the Web". Wired News. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ "Analyzing the Internet Collapse". ABC News. 2008-02-05. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ "One Internet cut explained, but four others still a mystery". 2008-02-07. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ Agence France Press (8 February 2008). "One Internet cut explained, but four others still a mystery". Archived from the original on 10 February 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ "Fourth undersea cable cut near UAE, suspicions rise". Engadget. 2008-02-05. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
- CNET.com. 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
- ^ a b "Middle East Internet interruption looks fishy". 2008-02-08. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 9 February 2008.
- ^ "Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse". 2005-08-02. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008. Retrieved 9 February 2008.
- ^ Singel, Ryan (6 February 2008). "Cable Cut Fever Grips the Web". Wired.
- ^ "Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables: UN agency". Sydney Morning Herald. Agence France-Presse. 2008-02-19. Archived from the original on 31 December 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
- ^ McGlaun, Shane (2008-04-14). "Two Ships Impounded After Investigation into Undersea Cable Cuts". DailyTech. Archived from the original on 2015-06-23. Retrieved 2015-06-23.
External links
- Map by The Guardian of the submarine cables in the world, highlighting the first two cables cut