The year-end holiday season is the time for cheering and merrymaking for almost everyone around the world. But for millions of Internet users in countries as diverse as United Kingdom to UAE, and India to Japan, this year's holidays may be ending as a damp squib. That's because repairs of SeaMeWe 4 ( which is one of the three major undersea cables - the other two are SeaMeWe 3 and FLAG Europe Asia cable) that snapped on December 19 and was being repaired, broke again a day after Christmas at a different place about 240 miles way from where it was being repaired.
What is worse, the repair of that break is not expected to be complete before January 4 or 5 because the repair ship is now sailing somewhere else and will take at least until December 31 to even reach the location of the new breakage.
"Although the other two cables have been bearing much of the traffic leads, connectivity and connection speeds of millions of Internet users in India, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Taiwan, Yemen and another half a dozen countries including UK are suffering," said an Internet Association Industry source.
According to reports quoting sources at France Telecom, the company that is undertaking the repairs, SeaMeWe 4 (Short for South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 cable) snapped again between Italy and Egypt due to an underwater earthquake on Dec. 26, a day after traffic had been restored following the December 19 breakage.
SeaMeWe 4, along with the other two cables, carry as much as 75 % of the Internet traffic between Europe and the Middle East and Asia. Repeated snapping of these cables highlight the fragility of the submarine cables that carry voice and Internet traffic thousands of miles between continents. The Flag and Sea Me We cables were also cut in January this year allegedly due to accidental anchoring of a ship, or an undersea earthquake, although there was also a suspicion that the damage could have been a sabotage.
Ruling out sabotage this time round though, a France Telecom spokesman said, "It is unlucky, but cables can always snap." However, is it really just bad luck? Consider this; the SeaMeWe cables broke thrice this year - the latest being twice within the same week. And that's not all; between end-January and mid-February this year there were reportedly eight cuts of other cables, all unexplained like those of the Flag and SeaMeWe cables. Barring one, all of them have occurred in waters near predominantly Muslim nations.
Hmmm.... food for thought maybe!
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