Subsea cable cuts in the Red Sea have disrupted internet access in parts of Asia and the Middle East, including India and Pakistan. It’s not yet clear what caused the cuts, which are affecting key internet infrastructure.
The Cause of the Outage 🧐
The exact cause of the cable cuts has not been officially confirmed. Undersea cables can be damaged accidentally by ship anchors or natural disasters. However, they can also be deliberately targeted. There have been concerns that the cables could be a target in the Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have been actively targeting ships in the area to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have, however, denied responsibility for past cable cuts.
Affected Infrastructure and Impact 🌍
The disruptions are specifically linked to failures in the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SMW4) cable, which is managed by Tata Communications, and the India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE) cable, which is operated by a consortium led by Alcatel-Lucent.
The cuts have resulted in degraded internet connectivity and increased latency in several countries. According to the internet monitoring group NetBlocks, India and Pakistan are among those affected, while Microsoft has also confirmed that its Azure cloud service is experiencing disruptions for users in Asia and Europe. While internet service providers can reroute traffic through alternative cables and satellite connections, this process often leads to slower speeds and higher latency for users.
The Repair Process 🔧
Repairing a subsea cable is a complex and time-consuming process. It requires a specialized ship and crew to locate the damaged section of the cable on the ocean floor, which can be thousands of meters below the surface. The crew must then retrieve the broken ends of the cable, splice them back together, and re-lay the repaired section. The entire process can take several weeks to complete, leaving affected areas to rely on rerouted traffic in the interim.