3 Major Cables Cut in the Mediterranea again.

[Guest Stuge]

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.)

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