2008 submarine cable disruption
Encyclopedia
2008 submarine cable disruption refers to three separate incidents of major damage to submarine optical cables. The first incident caused damage involving up to five high-speed Internet
submarine communications cable
s 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
. The incident called into doubt the safety of the undersea portion of the Internet cable system.
In late February there was another outage, this time affecting a fiber optic connection between Singapore
and Jakarta
.
On 19 December, FLAG FEA
, GO-1
, SEA-ME-WE 3, and SEA-ME-WE 4 were all cut.
on 23 January. The FALCON cable system connects several countries in the Persian Gulf
and India.
following damage to the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG Telecom
cables in the Mediterranean Sea. The damage to the two systems occurred separately several kilometers apart near Alexandria
.
While the respective contributions of the two cable systems to this blackout is unclear, network outage graphs show anomalies at 0430 UTC
and again at 0800 UTC. The cause of the damage to SEA-ME-WE 4 or FLAG has not been declared by either cable operator. A number of sources speculated these were caused by a dragging ship anchor
near Alexandria. The Egyptian Maritime Transport Ministry reviewed one day of complete video footage beginning 12 hours before and through 12 hours after the service disruption, concluding the cause of damage was not surface craft as no ships were traced sailing through the area of the alleged wire damage. The Kuwaitis also do not directly charge seafaring vessels, instead referring to "weather conditions and maritime traffic."
The Economist
reported that an earthquake may have caused the cable to fault.
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
.
1.7 million Internet users in the UAE
were affected by the Internet disruption. Mahesh Jaishanker, an executive director for Du
, said, “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3 km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SEA-ME-WE 4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.” A router for a university in Tehran
was not responding, causing some reports of a total loss of connectivity for Iran
. However, the Iranian embassy in Abu Dhabi
reported that "everything was fine." Additional reports and analysis showed that while Iran was affected, it "fared much better" than many other countries in the same geographic area.
On 1 February 2008, VSNL, a leading communications solutions provider in India
, confirmed that the company restored a majority of its IP
connectivity into the MENA
region within 24 hours of the Egypt
cable breakdown. Services were largely restored within 24 hours of the cable cut by diverting traffic through the TIC and SEA-ME-WE 3 cables.
, Oman
and Dubai
, UAE
. This cut was between different landing points than the 23 January cut, FLAG Telecom issued a press release later, stating the "FALCON cable
is reported cut at 0559 hrs GMT on 1 February 2008. Location of cut is at 56 km from Dubai, UAE on segment between UAE and Oman". This cut was caused by an abandoned anchor weighing 5-6 tonnes.
reported that a cable called DOHA-HALOUL connecting Qatar
to the United Arab Emirates had been damaged, causing disruptions in already damaged Middle Eastern communication networks. It became the fourth cable to be damaged in 5 days. The location of the break is between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das. The problem is said to be related to the power system.
reported that SEA-ME-WE 4 had also been damaged at another location, near Penang
, Malaysia. The date of this damage was not given.
issued a press release stating that the FLAG Telecom
, SEA-ME-WE 4, and SEA-ME-WE 3 cables, linking Alexandria, Egypt
, Sicily
, and Malta
, had been cut by either bad weather conditions or a ship's anchor
, resulting in substantial slowdowns in communication traffic, with Egypt
experiencing an overall 80% reduction in Internet
capacity. France Telecom expects SEA-ME-WE 4 will be repaired first, then SEA-ME-WE 3, then FLAG, and that repairs should be concluded by 31 December. The break disrupted 75% of communication between the Middle East
and Asia
and the rest of the world. The breaks caused companies including Vodafone
, Verizon Communications
, Portugal Telecom
, GO (Malta)
and France Telecom
to experience disruption in their systems and forced them to reroute communications through different means. Others, such as AT&T
, also received reports of service disruption. The rerouting of these communications caused large slowdowns in some areas. Interoute
director Jonathan Wright stated that "You can reroute the data through other cables, but that increases traffic and can potentially create bottlenecks, so Internet connections may slow down and some phone calls could get disrupted." The GO-1
cable connecting Malta and Sicily was also cut.
s, but reviews of surveillance footage of the area by Egypt
ian authorities
revealed no ships in the area. 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.
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.
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.
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.
is used to identify the distance to the fault from a specific site. Time Domain Reflectometry involves sending a signal down the undewater cable line and then capturing the reflected signal. By comparing the original signal with the reflected signal, a mathematical algorithm can provide the distance to the cable fault.
and Iraq
were not affected by the communications blackout, conspiracy theories have begun to spread throughout the Internet.
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. This article points out that the disruption or damage to these cables preceded the intended launch of the Iranian oil bourse
on Kish Island between 1 and 11 February. The launch of this bourse, which was intended to broker sales of oil denominated in euros (sometimes called "petroeuros") had been interpreted by some as an attempt by Iran to inflict additional damage to the value of the dollar by reducing the volume of oil which is traded in "petrodollar
s". Given the potential economic damage of euro-denominated oil sales in the context of on-going dollar deflation, as well as the large number of cables which appear to have been disrupted or damaged, Marketwatch's John Dvorak has written that the U.S. can expect to be blamed for the disruptions.
According to this sabotage theory, the damaged cables and the resulting Internet disruptions would destroy confidence in the ability of the Iranian Oil Bourse
to execute trades, thereby thwarting the establishment of an alternative to dollar-denominated oil sales. In fact, Iran suffered very little from the outages, which primarily affected America's allies in the region (see 'Effects' above). Bloggers have also suggested that the cable disruptions were a cover for NSA installing taps on the lines for eavesdropping.
On Monday, 18 February, the International Telecommunication Union
said that the damage could have been an act of sabotage. The UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed was quoted, "We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago."
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
submarine communications cable
Submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean....
s in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
and Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
from 23 January to 4 February 2008, causing internet disruptions and slowdowns for users in the Middle East and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The incident called into doubt the safety of the undersea portion of the Internet cable system.
In late February there was another outage, this time affecting a fiber optic connection between Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
.
On 19 December, FLAG FEA
Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe
Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe is a 28,000-kilometer-long submarine communications cable containing optical fiber that connects the United Kingdom, Japan, and many places in between. The cable is operated by India's Flag Telecom, a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications. The system...
, GO-1
GO-1
GO-1 is a submarine communications cable system that links Sicily to Malta, operated by the Maltese telecommunications company GO.It currently consists of a single cable, laid in 1995, linking St George's Bay in Malta to Catania in Sicily...
, SEA-ME-WE 3, and SEA-ME-WE 4 were all cut.
23 January
Although it was not reported at the time, there was a cut off of FALCONFALCON (cable system)
FALCON is a submarine telecommunications cable connecting India and several countries in the Persian Gulf. As part of the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe, the cable is operated by India's Flag Telecom, a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications....
on 23 January. The FALCON cable system connects several countries in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
and India.
30 January
On 30 January 2008, news agencies reported Internet services were widely disrupted in the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
following damage to the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG Telecom
Flag Telecom
Reliance Globalcom is a division of Reliance Communications, an Indian integrated telecommunications service provider. Reliance Globalcom provides global managed network solutions and services, and has network management capability in partnership with carrier partners...
cables in the Mediterranean Sea. The damage to the two systems occurred separately several kilometers apart near Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
.
While the respective contributions of the two cable systems to this blackout is unclear, network outage graphs show anomalies at 0430 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
and again at 0800 UTC. The cause of the damage to SEA-ME-WE 4 or FLAG has not been declared by either cable operator. A number of sources speculated these were caused by a dragging ship anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
near Alexandria. The Egyptian Maritime Transport Ministry reviewed one day of complete video footage beginning 12 hours before and through 12 hours after the service disruption, concluding the cause of damage was not surface craft as no ships were traced sailing through the area of the alleged wire damage. The Kuwaitis also do not directly charge seafaring vessels, instead referring to "weather conditions and maritime traffic."
The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
reported that an earthquake may have caused the cable to fault.
Effects
Disruptions of 70 percent in EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and 60 percent in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
were reported, along with problems in Afghanistan-AWCC, Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
and United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
.
1.7 million Internet users in the UAE
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
were affected by the Internet disruption. Mahesh Jaishanker, an executive director for Du
Du (telco)
The Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company is a telecommunications company in the United Arab Emirates. Although Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company is its legal name, it was commercially rebranded as du in February 2006...
, said, “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3 km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SEA-ME-WE 4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.” A router for a university in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
was not responding, causing some reports of a total loss of connectivity for Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. However, the Iranian embassy in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
reported that "everything was fine." Additional reports and analysis showed that while Iran was affected, it "fared much better" than many other countries in the same geographic area.
On 1 February 2008, VSNL, a leading communications solutions provider in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, confirmed that the company restored a majority of its IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
connectivity into the MENA
MENA
The term MENA, for "Middle East and North Africa", is an acronym often used in academic, military planning and business writing.The term covers an extensive region, extending from Morocco to Iran, including the majority of both the Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries...
region within 24 hours of the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
cable breakdown. Services were largely restored within 24 hours of the cable cut by diverting traffic through the TIC and SEA-ME-WE 3 cables.
1 February
Two days after the initial break, it was reported that the FALCON cable was cut between MuscatMuscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
and Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, UAE
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
. This cut was between different landing points than the 23 January cut, FLAG Telecom issued a press release later, stating the "FALCON cable
FALCON (cable system)
FALCON is a submarine telecommunications cable connecting India and several countries in the Persian Gulf. As part of the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe, the cable is operated by India's Flag Telecom, a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications....
is reported cut at 0559 hrs GMT on 1 February 2008. Location of cut is at 56 km from Dubai, UAE on segment between UAE and Oman". This cut was caused by an abandoned anchor weighing 5-6 tonnes.
3 February
On 3 February 2008, QtelQtel
Qtel used to be the exclusive telecommunications provider in Qatar and is one of the largest public companies in Qatar with about 2000 employees. It was successfully launched on the Doha Securities Market in 1998 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1999, the Bahrain Stock Exchange in 2001...
reported that a cable called DOHA-HALOUL connecting Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
to the United Arab Emirates had been damaged, causing disruptions in already damaged Middle Eastern communication networks. It became the fourth cable to be damaged in 5 days. The location of the break is between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das. The problem is said to be related to the power system.
4 February
On 4 February 2008 the Khaleej TimesKhaleej Times
The Khaleej Times is a daily English language newspaper published in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Traditionally perceived as the second most popular newspaper in the UAE, Khaleej Times has struggled to keep up its circulation and entered 2011 with a print run of just under 40,000 copies...
reported that SEA-ME-WE 4 had also been damaged at another location, near Penang
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...
, Malaysia. The date of this damage was not given.
19 December
On 19 December 2008 France TelecomFrance Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
issued a press release stating that the FLAG Telecom
Flag Telecom
Reliance Globalcom is a division of Reliance Communications, an Indian integrated telecommunications service provider. Reliance Globalcom provides global managed network solutions and services, and has network management capability in partnership with carrier partners...
, SEA-ME-WE 4, and SEA-ME-WE 3 cables, linking Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, and Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, had been cut by either bad weather conditions or a ship's anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
, resulting in substantial slowdowns in communication traffic, with Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
experiencing an overall 80% reduction in Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
capacity. France Telecom expects SEA-ME-WE 4 will be repaired first, then SEA-ME-WE 3, then FLAG, and that repairs should be concluded by 31 December. The break disrupted 75% of communication between the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and the rest of the world. The breaks caused companies including Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
, Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
, Portugal Telecom
Portugal Telecom
Portugal Telecom is the largest telecommunications service provider in Portugal. Although it operates mainly in Portugal and Brazil, it has also a significant presence in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Timor-Leste, Angola, Kenya, the People's Republic of China, and São Tomé and...
, GO (Malta)
GO (Malta)
GO p.l.c. is a provider of local and long distance telephone services, wireless service, cable television, and DSL Internet access. GO is based in Marsa, Malta.-History:...
and France Telecom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
to experience disruption in their systems and forced them to reroute communications through different means. Others, such as AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, also received reports of service disruption. The rerouting of these communications caused large slowdowns in some areas. Interoute
Interoute
Interoute Communications Ltd, is a privately held telecommunications company, which owns and operates a next generation . The network links to 21 Metropolitan Area Networks in 29 countries across 55,000 km of lit fibre and includes 8 Data Centres and 32 Colocation Centres.Interoute’s network...
director Jonathan Wright stated that "You can reroute the data through other cables, but that increases traffic and can potentially create bottlenecks, so Internet connections may slow down and some phone calls could get disrupted." The GO-1
GO-1
GO-1 is a submarine communications cable system that links Sicily to Malta, operated by the Maltese telecommunications company GO.It currently consists of a single cable, laid in 1995, linking St George's Bay in Malta to Catania in Sicily...
cable connecting Malta and Sicily was also cut.
Anchors
These disruptions are attributed by some officials to accidents involving ships' anchorAnchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
s, but reviews of surveillance footage of the area by Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian authorities
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
revealed no ships in the area. 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.
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.
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.
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.According to Global Marine Systems
Global Marine Systems
Global Marine Systems is a specialist-shipping company that installs, maintains and repairs submarine communications and power cables.- History :...
, "Undersea cable damage is hardly rare—indeed, more than 50 repair operations were mounted in the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
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.
Locating Cable Faults
One of the challenges in underwater cable faults is locating the exact placement of the actual fault (i.e. break). Similar to basic wire faults, a Time-domain reflectometerTime-domain reflectometer
A time-domain reflectometer is an electronic instrument used to characterize and locate faults in metallic cables . It can also be used to locate discontinuities in a connector, printed circuit board, or any other electrical path...
is used to identify the distance to the fault from a specific site. Time Domain Reflectometry involves sending a signal down the undewater cable line and then capturing the reflected signal. By comparing the original signal with the reflected signal, a mathematical algorithm can provide the distance to the cable fault.
Conspiracy theories
Since IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
were not affected by the communications blackout, conspiracy theories have begun to spread throughout the Internet.
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. This article points out that the disruption or damage to these cables preceded the intended launch of the Iranian oil bourse
Iranian oil bourse
The Iranian Oil Bourse International Oil Bourse, Iran Petroleum Exchange Kish Exchange or Oil Bourse in Kish is a commodity exchange which opened on February 17, 2008. It was created by cooperation between Iranian ministries, the Iran Mercantile Exchange and other state and private institutions...
on Kish Island between 1 and 11 February. The launch of this bourse, which was intended to broker sales of oil denominated in euros (sometimes called "petroeuros") had been interpreted by some as an attempt by Iran to inflict additional damage to the value of the dollar by reducing the volume of oil which is traded in "petrodollar
Petrodollar
A petrodollar is a United States dollar earned by a country through the sale of petroleum. The term was coined by Ibrahim Oweiss, a professor of economics at Georgetown University, in 1973...
s". Given the potential economic damage of euro-denominated oil sales in the context of on-going dollar deflation, as well as the large number of cables which appear to have been disrupted or damaged, Marketwatch's John Dvorak has written that the U.S. can expect to be blamed for the disruptions.
According to this sabotage theory, the damaged cables and the resulting Internet disruptions would destroy confidence in the ability of the Iranian Oil Bourse
Iranian oil bourse
The Iranian Oil Bourse International Oil Bourse, Iran Petroleum Exchange Kish Exchange or Oil Bourse in Kish is a commodity exchange which opened on February 17, 2008. It was created by cooperation between Iranian ministries, the Iran Mercantile Exchange and other state and private institutions...
to execute trades, thereby thwarting the establishment of an alternative to dollar-denominated oil sales. In fact, Iran suffered very little from the outages, which primarily affected America's allies in the region (see 'Effects' above). Bloggers have also suggested that the cable disruptions were a cover for NSA installing taps on the lines for eavesdropping.
On Monday, 18 February, the International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...
said that the damage could have been an act of sabotage. The UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed was quoted, "We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago."
External links
- Map by The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
of the submarine cables in the world, highlighting the first two cables cut
