Undersea fiber cable breaks cut Internet in Asia
Fiber Cable breaks cut Internet in Mideast, South Asia
Breaks in three submarine cables under the Mediterranean, possibly caused by a ship’s anchor, have disrupted Internet & international telephone services in parts of the Middle East and South Asia, officials said on Saturday.
A ship carrying a submarine repair robot was on its way to the site between Sicily & Tunisia on Saturday, with work expected to take until the end of the year, a spokesman for ship owner and telecom operator France Telecom said.
The undersea cables, owned by different consortiums including France Telecom, were damaged between 0728 GMT & 0806 GMT on Friday. A fourth minor cable linking Malta and Italy may also have been affected, the spokesman said.
“There are two theories: either the anchor of a ship, which could have displaced them … or an earthquake. We think it’s the first theory,” spokesman Louis-Michel Aymard said.
The “Raymond Croze” cable ship was expected to reach the scene at 2200 GMT on Sunday, when the remotely operated “Hector” robot would start a search for the cables, which could have been dragged several kilometres, Aymard added.
The damage to the SEA-ME-WE3, SEA-ME-WE4 & FLAG cables caused varying degrees of disruption from Zambia to India, Pakistan and Taiwan.
“We think we will get SEA-ME-WE4 repaired by December 25. For 4 & 3, it should be done by the end of the year, or January 1 2009,” Aymard said. France Telecom is not a partner in the FLAG consortium.
