Repairs Begin on Undersea Cables to Mideast

Flag Telecom has dispatched ships to both of its severed cables, but completing the repairs will take several more days.

A week after damage to undersea fiber-optic cables severely crippled Internet access in much of the Middle East and India, repairs on the cables have finally begun. Work has commenced on two of the three cables that were severed last week, but finishing the repairs could take another week.

Flag Telecom’s Europe-Asia cable and another known as SEA-ME-WE 4 were both cut last Wednesday off the coast of Egypt, while another Flag cable, FALCON, was severed on Friday near Dubai. Flag sent ships to repair both of its cables on Tuesday, despite extreme weather conditions on the site of the Europe-Asia cable repair that could hamper the process. Repairs on that cable are expected to take six to seven days, while FALCON repairs should be done in three to four.

No further details have yet emerged on how the cables were cut. Some speculated that the Europe-Asia cable was the victim of a ship’s anchor dragging across the sea bottom, but Egyptian authorities have reported that no ships were in the area at the time of the disruption. Flag officials do not suspect foul play.