broadband news

Broadband goes down as under-sea cable severed

Two major fibre optic cables, used to transmit broadband to areas of the Middle East, Asia and Europe have been severed.

The exact cause of the damage is uncertain, but it is likely a ship’s anchor dragged along the sea bed and ripped the major broadband communications artery. The damage, which took place somewhere between Tunisia and Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, has caused around 70% of broadband communications across the continents to be interrupted.

Speaking to the Guardian about the blow to broadband, Jonathan Wright, a director at telecoms company Interoute, said: “The potential impact of an outage of this size cannot be underestimated – it is like severing a major artery. Global [broadband] internet connectivity is reliant on sub-sea cables connecting countries.”

Despite the prevalence of wireless internet and satellite connections, global communications – including broadband and telephone - are still heavily reliant on the vast networks of fibre optic cables which cover the planet.

Repairs to the broadband cables are now taking place by experts from France Telecom Marine. The operation will involve locating the severed broadband cables by robotic submarine, which may have been dragged as much as several kilometres across the sea bed, before bringing them to the surface for repair. The painstaking procedure could take workers until the end of December 2008, as each fibre which transmits broadband internet must be repaired individually.

The incident comes less than a year after a similar outage brought a halt to broadband and phone communications between Europe, Africa and Asia.

25/12/2008
Author: CompareBroadbandUK staff writer

Next broadband news story

UK housewives top students in broadband surfing stakes
- Survey finds UK housewives spend the greatest proportion of leisure time online
25/12/2008

Read all our broadband news stories

Sign up to our broadband newsletterStay updated with our free broadband and mobile broadband newsletter.