UnderSea Cables Cut, Internet Disrupted Across Asia and Middle East

Posted By : Avinash on Dec 20th, 2008 in categories NEWS

«  Last Post                                                                                       Next Post  »

I’ve observed my Internet Speeds drop over the past few days, It turns out to be that 3 major undersea cables — the Sea Me We 4, Sea Me We3, and FLAG  were cut, considerably slowing down India’s internet and voice traffic.This incident affects India the most along with others countries like Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Malaysia,Maldives, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, Taiwan, Yemen, Zambia:

Fibres cut in recent years:

• January 20, 2007: Due to Taiwan Earthquake
• January 30, 2008: In Mediterranean Region
• Now December 19, 2008: Again in Mediterranean Region

Most common reasons why these cables could be broken or damaged are by fishing trawlers, anchoring, undersea avalanches, earth quakes and even shark bites.

How are undersea cables repaired?

• Find the location of the accident; drag the damaged part to the surface, and replace it with a new stretch of cable.
• May also send light pulses along the fibers in the cable to determine the exact location.
• A working fiber will transmit those pulses all the way across the ocean; a broken one will bounce it back.
• The telecom operator then sends out a large cable ship with a few miles of fresh fibre-optic lines.
• If the faulty part of the cable is less than about 4,000 feet down, a submersible robot can be sent.
• The robot finds the right place; grabs hold of the cable; cuts out the malfunctioning section, and pulls the loose ends back up to the ship.
• Robots do not work in very deep water. In such cases, technicians use a grapnel to cut the cable and hold it.
• A skilled technician (jointer) splices the glass fibers; uses adhesives to attach the new section of cable.
• The repaired cable is then lowered back to the seabed on ropes.

Here’s an flash clip that shows how this is done,

[flash http://www.ilovebonnie.net/cablefix.swf w=400 h=250 mode=0]