France Telecom has reported today that 3 major underwater cables were cut: “Sea Me We 4” at 7:28am, “Sea Me We3” at 7:33am and FLAG at 8:06am. The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear.

Most of the B to B traffic between Europe and Asia is rerouted through the USA. Traffic from Europe to Algeria and Tunisia is not affected, but traffic from Europe to the Near East and Asia is interrupted to a greater or lesser extent (see country list below).



Three undersea cables – Sea Me We3 partly, Sea Me We4 and FLAG – cut in the morning hours of December 19, 2008, causing significant Internet access disruptions between Europe and Asia/Near East zone. Map by TeleGeography Three undersea cables – Sea Me We3 partly, Sea Me We4 and FLAG – cut in the morning hours of December 19, 2008, causing significant Internet access disruptions between Europe and Asia/Near East zone. Map by TeleGeography

Part of the internet traffic towards Réunion is affected as well as 50% towards Jordan. A first appraisal at 7:44 am UTC gave an estimate of the following impact on the voice traffic (in percentage of out of service capacity):

Saudi Arabia: 55% out of service

Djibouti: 71% out of service

Egypt: 52% out of service

United Arab Emirates: 68% out of service

India: 82% out of service

Lebanon: 16% out of service

Malaysia: 42% out of service

Maldives: 100% out of service

Pakistan: 51% out of service

Qatar: 73% out of service

Syria: 36% out of service

Taiwan: 39% out of service

Yemen: 38% out of service

Zambia: 62% out of service

[Editor's Note - Dec 21, 2008: The SeaMeWe-4 cable connects 12 countries: Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France.]

France Telecom says that it immediately alerted one of the two maintenance boats based in the Mediterranean area, the “Raymond Croze”. This France Telecom Marine cable ship based at Seyne-sur-Mer has received its mobilization order early this afternoon and will cast off tonight at 3:00 am with 20 kilometers spare cable on board. It should be on location on Monday morning for a relief mission.

Priority will be given to the recovery of the Sea Me We4 cable, then on the Sea Me We3. By December 25th, Sea Me We4 could be operating. By December 31st, the situation should be back to normal.



The "traffic index" is a score from 0 to 100 where 0 is "slow" and 100 is "fast". It is determined by comparing the current response of a ping echo to all previous responses from the same router over the past 7 days. A score of 0 to 100 is then assigned to the current response depending on if this response is better or worse than all previous responses from that router. Source: The "traffic index" is a score from 0 to 100 where 0 is "slow" and 100 is "fast". It is determined by comparing the current response of a ping echo to all previous responses from the same router over the past 7 days. A score of 0 to 100 is then assigned to the current response depending on if this response is better or worse than all previous responses from that router. Source: Internet Traffic Report - December 19, 2008

Updates: UPDATED Jan 12, 2009 11:33 am PDT

December 19, 2008

Severed cable disrupts web access BBC

India suffers massive internet disruption after undersea cables break TimesOnline

Damaged undersea cables disrupting service CNet News

Mediterranean Undersea Cables Cut, Again Data Center Knowledge

Severed Cables in Mediterranean Disrupt Communication Bloomberg

Mass Internet outages in Egypt after cables cut AP

Cable Cuts Disrupt Internet in Middle East and India, Again TeleGeography

Subsea Cable Cuts Hit Euro/Asia Route LightReading

Internet services continue in UAE despite cable damage WAM

Latest undersea cable cuts affecting billions VentureBeat

Mediterranean Undersea Cables Cut, Again Slashdot

Severed cables bring down phone lines linking Europe, Asia, Mideast AFP, Paris

Conspiracy theorist wanted CIO Weblog

Deja Vu All Over Again: Cables Cut in the Mediterranean Alin Popescu, Renesys

Why Do Undersea Cables Seem To Get Severed In Bunches? Techdirt

December 20, 2008

Internet cut a ‘rare’ occurrence TheNational, Abu Dhabi

Cut cables? Conspiracy conjectures! (again) Computerworld

Egypt internet services still disrupted: official AFP

Another Cluster of Cable Cuts SMBlog

December 21, 2008

Internet service still spotty in parts of Mideast AP

Undersea cable damage: BPOs switch to back-up BusinessLine

Repair work starts on undersea telecoms cables Khaleej Times

Undersea Cable Cuts, Internet Governance, and Lessons Learned Baher Esmat, CircleID

Repair crews reach damaged cables in Mediterranean AP

December 22, 2008

Undersea robot searches for severed cables NetworkWorld

IT, BPO cos hit by net breakdown; restoration by Friday IndiaTimes

December 29, 2008

Cable Repairs Set Back by Second Undersea Break PC World

Yet Another Mediterranean Cable Failure Data Center Knowledge

January 12, 2009

Why the Mediterranean is the Achilles' heel of the web New Scientist