Another undersea Internet cable damaged in Mideast: Indian firm (4th?)

Yahoo News ^ | 03 February 2008

[Lorianne]

NEW DELHI (AFP) - - Another Middle East undersea Internet cable has been damaged, adding to disruption in Indian online services caused when several lines were cut earlier this week, a cable operating firm said Saturday.

The Falcon cable was cut 56 kilometres (35 miles) from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to its owner FLAG Telecom, part of India's Reliance Communications.

The company said on its website that a repair ship had been notified and was expected to arrive at the site in the next few days.

The cause of the latest cable damage was not immediately known.

Flag Telecom owns another undersea cable which was damaged off Egypt on Wednesday in the Mediterranean. Indian media reports have attributed that damage to a ship's anchor which dropped on the cable.

On the same day in Kuwait, the government reported two cables damaged by "weather conditions and maritime traffic."

The cable damage has left India's vital outsourcing industry grappling with major communications disruptions and businesses saying they could take up to two weeks to return to normal.

It has also disrupted Internet service across the Middle East and other parts of South Asia.

A repair ship was expected to arrive by next Tuesday to restore the FLAG Telecom cable that was damaged off Egypt, the company said.

Smaller Indian firms will be harder hit as they depend on a single service provider, said R.S Perhar, secretary of the Internet Service Providers' Association of India (ISPAI).

"But traffic has already started moving after being re-routed," Perhar said.

Around 90 percent of the services were expected to be restored by Sunday, the ISPAI said.

India's 11-billion-dollar outsourcing industry is made up of 1,250 firms that deliver services ranging from answering customer queries to processing credit card and mortgage applications.

The industry employs 700,000 people, serving clients mainly in the United States and Europe that sought to cut costs by farming out work to the country.

[The KG9 Kid]

Obvious sabotage, but we knew that when the third cable was cut.

Boy, what games are being played out there?

[ducdriver]

Getting pretty accurate with those “anchors”?

[tcrlaf]

I’ve seen several postings of the rumor type that the Kremlin is blaming US Submarines for the disruptions...

Could be B.S>, but who knows...

[LukeL]

I only found out all but 2-3 years ago that there were thousands of miles of underground cables in the oceans, growing up in the computer age I assumed international communication was done with satellites.

I also saw a neat show about the first transatlantic telegraph line, and how the first person to use it turned the current up too high and shorted it out.

[Cap Huff]

Ping

[MarineBrat]

It’ll take even longer now to get some guy named Habib who kinda speaks English and goes by the name of david on the horn when my DSL line goes down.

[dayglored]

I think this is a replay of the third cable break, not a fourth.

[Lorianne]

You think? It was difficult to tell I agree.
Drudge the link to this article up, presumably as new news.

[Arkinsaw]

They are reporting a FOURTH. A little too much for coincidence.

No telling what is really going on, and why.

[FormerACLUmember]

Al Queda v. the Internet

[The KG9 Kid]

That means THEY'RE doing it, if I remember my Cold War diplomacy dialogue.

Doesn't Pakistan have a diesel sub or two?

[HarryCaul]

It’s definitely the 4th. There was an earlier thread on it.

There was also a news story somewhere that said only Iraw and Israel have not been affected, and that Iran is 100% cut off from internet flow.

[tcrlaf]

“Al Queda v. the Internet”

More likely the Israeli’s versus the Interenet...

Have they taken delivery of those super quiet German subs, yet??

[El Gato]

Once is an accident, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. This makes four times.

Sounds like someone doesn't like the competition, or just Hindus. Lots of Jihadies in the parts of the world where these incidents are occurring.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1963607/posts?page=115#115

[El Gato]

More likely the Israeli’s versus the Interenet..

Why would the Israelis want to sabotage the Indians, one of their best customers.

[Paleo Conservative]

Lorianne I only found out all but 2-3 years ago that there were thousands of miles of underground cables in the oceans, growing up in the computer age I assumed international communication was done with satellites.

Too much signal latency. Satellites are great for covering wide areas, but aren't good for anything that requires interaction. A satellite in geosynchronous orbit is about 22,600 miles above the equator. Even at the speed of light it takes at least a quarter of a second to send a signal up to a satellite and for it to be retransmitted back down to the Earth. Additional satellite relays increase the delay. Have you ever noticed how awkward live interviews are when there are multiple satellites relaying the signals? Fiber optic cables can send tremendous amounts of data even more cheaply than satellites, but they have a shorter path, so there is less delay between sending and receiving signals.

[Myrddin]

I only found out all but 2-3 years ago that there were thousands of miles of underground cables in the oceans, growing up in the computer age I assumed international communication was done with satellites.

Geosynchronous satellites are placed at 22,500 miles above the earth. Traveling that distance takes significant time. The voice telephone routing rules only permit a single satellite relay in a voice path. Having a satellite both ways creates such a delay that it is virtually impossible to have a conversation without "talking over" the other person or resorting to ridiculous half duplex speech behaviors.

The large number of "customer service" boiler rooms operating in India would be impossible with only satellite links. Users are tolerant of delays when using a browser. It's an expected consequence of network delays and busy servers. The same can't be said of one-on-one voice conversations. It needs to have a full duplex feel with little discernible delay to be satisfactory.

[Myrddin]

Doesn't Pakistan have a diesel sub or two?

They have 5 operational methanol driven subs with 12 nuclear capable launch tubes each. You can thank France for the design, tutoring and initial implementation in the Pakistani ship yards.

[Secret Agent Man]

It’s either the Israelis or US.

[KingNo155]

The Friday that just passed I met a Gentleman who worked on both the 1st and 2nd Trans-cont telegraph lines as an engineer, He told me many great stories. The one thing that stands out from our conversation is that he told me on the first cable; they pretty much just winged the whole thing and made it work, he also spoke highly of the “uneducated” guys whose Ideas were more technically sound than those who had formal training in their respective engineering trade.

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

They are reporting a FOURTH. A little too much for coincidence.

Not necessarily.

Ask someone to flip a coin 200 times and write down each flip as head or tails. Ask someone else to write down heads or tails 200 times without actually flipping a coin. Compare the two lists to identify the one that was really flipped from the made up list. Invariably the made up list will have no more than 3 head or tails in row, while the real list will have at least one sequence of 6 or more heads or tails.

Most people do not understand that random events can occur in batches.

[ThePythonicCow]

Good story - thanks!

[CarrotAndStick]

Internet through satellites has got a high latency(response time) problem. Fibre optics is faster, and cheaper.

[Cap Huff]

But it is not just the number within a short time span, it is also the location that is being effected. Or does that not make a difference?

[Mark was here]

I recall that as the best issue of Wired. Not sure what happened to my copy.

Thanks for the link.

[LukeL]

I understand that now, it just surprised me that in an era of cell phones, wi-fi and everything else, that we would still have tens of thousands of miles of wires cirss-crossing our oceans.

[M. Espinola]

"I’ve seen several postings of the rumor type that the Kremlin is blaming US Submarines for the disruptions..."

Putin always needs a fall guy for something.

[djf]

This is simply 2 dam much. Somethings up.

[FreedomPoster]

Here’s a great article from Wired magazine from a decade ago that covers both the modern laying of undersea cables and the history going back to the very beginning. Long but very interesting.

Mother Earth Mother Board
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html

[FreedomPoster]

And I’ve reposted.

I’ve still got that issue on my shelf. That’s a great article, for anyone interested in the history of technology.

[CarrotAndStick]

Yes, the next phase of technology is light-based micro-electronic circuitry. Light is more efficient, faster, and does not heat the conductors, unlike electricity. The challenge is in developing a light-based transistor. Once that is done, traditional silicon circuitry in integrated chips can be replaced.

Fibre optics is going to spread all over, replacing the copper wires that exist today.

Fibre to the premises (FTTP), will be the new medium of broadband communication.

[CarrotAndStick]

Here is a better-formatted version of the same:

http://econ161.berkeley.edu/OpEd/virtual/stephenson.html

An extremely interesting read. Thanks!

[DUMBGRUNT]

I had that ‘David’ guy!
He wanted me to reinstall my O.S. because a tree fell on the SBC lines!
If “David” answers just hang up!

[Abathar]

"Why would the Israelis want to sabotage the Indians, one of their best customers."

Cables have two ends though, you can't hurt one end without messing with the other. I am thinking that Israel is getting worried enough about Iran to really do something about them, cutting Abdul off from his ICQ buddies must have something to do with it . JMHO - YMMV

[G Larry]

IRANIAN SUBMARINES!!

..just guessing...

[G Larry]

NOPE!

3rd was on Friday.
This 4th one was on Sunday!

[Former Proud Canadian]

Router Location Current Index Response Time (ms) Packet Loss (%) router1.iust.ac.ir Iran (Tehran) 0 0 100

Not in the news too much, I learned about it on another thread on FR, but Iran has been isolated since the fourth cable got cut. Every country in the middle east is affected EXCEPT Israel and Iraq. Could be Israel or the US causing this. My money is on Israel.

[metmom]

Cables being cut is a random event?

[John Valentine]

When I cleaned out hundreds and hundreds of old magazines due to a move in 2002, that issue of WIRED was the ONLY magazine I saved.

[Arkinsaw]

Yeah, but severed cables undersea are not simple coin flips.

[Eroteme]

In a coin toss, there are only two possible outcomes. And coins are deliberately placed in the hands of the coin tossers for the express purpose of tossing them. The experiment would be greatly affected if the coins were glued to the floor and any would-be coin tossers specifically kept miles away.

The cables are in no-go areas, and Egypt reviewed video of at least one of them. No ships in the 12 hours either before or after.

[CPOSharky]

I understand that now, it just surprised me that in an era of cell phones, wi-fi and everything else, that we would still have tens of thousands of miles of wires cirss-crossing our oceans.

As soon as a cell or wi-fi signals hit a tower they are converted to wire or fiber transmission.

[Admin Moderator]

The publisher of Wired.com has asked that Free Republic allow no Wired.com material to be posted here.

Updated FR Excerpt and Link Only or Deny Posting List due to Copyright Complaints

[Straight Vermonter]

3rd FLAG Undersea Cable Cut, Now Between UAE and Oman

Two days after cable cuts which "cut off Iran" and affected the rest of the Middle East and West Asia but left communications in Israel and Iraq "intact", another cable owned by the same British company is severed, once again plunging the region into "Internet darkness". Image: FLAG's Europe-Asia "FEA" undersea cable network

Omar Sultan, chief executive of Dubai's Internet Service Provider "DU", said on Friday that an undersea cable had been cut in the Persian Gulf, causing severe phone line disruptions and making worse the already existing Internet outage across large parts of the Middle East and West Asia after two other undersea cables owned by the same British company were cut this week in the Mediterranean Sea 8.3 kilometers (5 miles) north of Alexandria, Egypt.

Mr Sultan said that the incident was "very unusual." He said it was not known how the underwater cable, owned by British FLAG FALCON company, which runs between the United Arab Emirates and Oman, had been damaged. DU said in a press release that the cause of the incident "had not yet been identified."

The owner of the FALCON cable, U.K. FLAG Telecom said the cable was cut at 05:59 UTC on Friday, 56 kilometers (35 miles) off the coast of Dubai and that a "repair ship has been notified and expected to arrive at the site in the next few days." The British company is also the owner of one of the undersea cables linking Egypt (Alexandria) with Italy (Palermo) that were sliced Wednesday in the Mediterranean Sea. That damage triggered wide Internet outages, hampering businesses and private usage across the Middle East and West Asia, and cutting off Iran "completely", according to reports.

The only 2 countries that were unaffected were Israel and Iraq, the only two close Anglo-American allies in the region, both remaining completely unaffected by the cable cuts, leading to theories for the causes of the cuts, which have so far been given as having been caused by ships dragging their anchors across the cables. The fact that two rare incidents have happened in the same week, and both with cables owned by the same company, on either sides of Israel and the importance of the Internet to telecommunications and business, lends suspicion to the events.

Agency reports state that a FLAG official in India, speaking on condition of anonymity because of company policy, said workers were still trying to determine how the Persian Gulf cable was cut. Earlier Friday, FLAG said that a repair ship was expected to arrive Tuesday at the site of the damaged cables off the coast of Alexandria, and that repair work would likely take a week, but gave no explanation why repairs would take so long.

FLAG Europe Asia (FEA) is the world's longest privately funded submarine cable. FLAG Telecom owns undersea communication cables across the United States of America, to England, West Europe and the Middle East, onward to South Asia and the Far East, and again across to the United States thus spanning the northern world.

Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamil on Friday said the reason behind Wednesday's cut undersea cable would only be determined once repair teams with their robot equipment reach the damaged cables.

[metmom]

Seems to me that I heard they were underwater cables.

Wouldn’t subs or submersible devices be more of a threat?

[DvdMom]

bump

[CPOSharky]

Wouldn’t subs or submersible devices be more of a threat?

Anchors are submersible. ;-)