FLAG Telecom Restores Undersea Internet Cuts

By: Michael Stevens
Staff Writer
Published: Feb 11, 2008

Internet services in the Middle East and India have been restored.

Flag Telecom said its Europe-Asia and Falcon cables that were cut are now completely restored. More than 95 percent of transoceanic telecom's and Internet traffic are carried by undersea cables.

Internet services were cut in south and west Asia after two cables of Egypt's northern coast were damaged two weeks ago. Recent reports indicate that the cables were damaged by ships taking detours to avoid bad weather, but Egypt said onshore video cameras showed no shipping in that part of the Mediterranean when the severe damage occurred.

Sabotage is now being suspected in the events that recently caused the widespread Internet disruption in Gulf states, Egypt and South Asia.

Web traffic was disrupted in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. Though traffic was rerouted through other cables, it wasn't restored to full capacity until 49 days later.

One of the biggest Internet service disruptions was in December 2006, when a magnitude of 7.1 earthquakes broke nine undersea cables between Taiwan and the Philippines, cutting connections between south East Asia and the rest of the world.