3 major cables cut in Mediterranean; Internet, phone traffic disrupted

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

This explains why I haven't heard from Waleed today. I guess this time it's more severe and may take several days for repairs.

3 major cables cut in Mediterranean; Internet, phone traffic disrupted

Three of four major underwater cables have been severed in the Mediterranean Sea, seriously disrupting Internet and telephone service between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Bloomberg reports. The fiber-optic cables handle more than 75% of the traffic between the Mideast, Europe and the United States, and 90% of transmission between Europe and the Mideast.

The BBC reports that 65% of traffic to India is thought to be down, and that Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan have also been hit hard, with Egyptian officials saying nearly all Net service is down. Traffic is being rerouted through the United States, and that will likely cause Internet slowdowns or dropped phone calls. Here's an earlier damage report from France Telecom.

It's not yet know what cut the cables between Italy and Tunisia. A similar outage in January was blamed on a ship's anchor off Egypt, and that may be the case again, according to Interoute, a European Internet Service Provider.

The BBC says that some seismic activity was reported near Malta, where the break apparently occurred, shortly before the cut was detected this morning. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 5.9 undersea quake in the Northern Mid-Atlantic, about 1,100 miles northwest of Portugal, but it's not clear whether the two events are connected.

It might be days before the cables can be repaired, and experts are warning that regional economies may be hit hard. The first repair ship is expected to arrive Monday morning.

The cables are known as SMW 3 and SMW 4, which are owned by phone companies, and FLAG, which is owned by Reliance Globalcom.

(Detail of the Reliance Globalcom transmission map for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.)

Source: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/...jor-cables.html

[Melly 2 0]

Hubby and I were online when it happened last night. Why couldn't this happen during the week instead of the weekend?

I hope they will get fixed soon. It's been incredibly hard to even get through on the phone.

[Nothing1234 2]

This is the 2nd time this year...WTH are they doing?? So crazy ...

[tenderheartusa79 14]

Once again there is no connection in Egypt.

its the second time this year . there is something wrong with some cables in Italy i guess.

i hope they will fix it soon.

i pray to GOD to make the time pass so fast till i can be with my queen then we will not be have

to use the internet anymore to talk .

[Henia 11]

Your siggie is hilarious Nawal LOLOL! Love it!

Well phone lines aren't the only ones cut here in NA ... water shortage and rations are common ... but as of last week they are rationing electricity too. A city near me, high in foreign population has already been affected. And we got our notice Thursday ... this all just sucks.

But anyway ... hoping everyone gets reconnected soon!

[star_dragon 0]

Hmm...can't in touch to Morocco too. I wonder. Cause I'm getting messages on MY end here from Verizon saying "call cannot be completed at this time" so the call isn't even connecting over there...

BAH.

[star_dragon 0]

Ok, so I got through, my according to him, his phone indicated my call was coming from the UK. His caller ID identified a UK number, with the UK calling code and everything. No wonder why when I said "Hi Hunny!" he said "........who is this?"

[brnidokiegurl 0]

ahmed did call on cell but had no internet connection (maybe just his computer prob)

[Laura+Tom 2]

I was having trouble emailing Tom in Bahrain yesterday. His internet at work was totally down but a few emails were getting through.

[Tunisia216 2]

I wonder what time this happened yesterday? I was trying to call Egypt on my way home from work and at first it was saying "The 900 number you're trying to call can not connect" woooot? I'm not trying to call a 900 number. I looked at the phone and double checked it was 201 lol so I started trying again and again and finally it said "calls to this country can not connect at this time, please try your call again later message EA 120" etc

I hope they get this fixed soon. The odd thing is that it does not seem to be affecting Tunisia now. I've been on the phone with them this morning, both land lines and mobile phones and it connected just fine. Hmm.

[Laura+Tom 2]

This is the link to the BBC story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7792688.stm

Apparently it could take until the end of the year to fix.

[Ihavequestions 419]

It's working again. Evidently there's been a quick fix and it's still not working fast, but at least it's working again.

[Laura+Tom 2]

The only thing that works where Tom is is Yahoo Messenger at the moment, no skype, no internet. It sucks.

[tenderheartusa79 14]

the ship that is going to fix those cables will take 2 days and maybe 3 days to fix those cables

[doodlebugg 10]

Does this affect cellphones because Usama couldn't contact his sisters today yet either.