Indian / ME Internet connectivity hit by ship's anchors off Alexandria
FLAG Telecom, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications, (***) they own and operate the world’s largest private undersea cable system, > 65,000 route kilometers over 4 continents - and growing.
This network serves as a Global Service Delivery Platform connecting 37 key business markets in India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the U.S. through an overlay low-latency, global, MPLS-based IP network.
Unfortunately ships off Alexandria, Egypt were asked by harbour authorities to anchor in a new location - 8.3km offshore and their anchors made multiple fractures in FLAG telecom's undersea cables connecting their European / Middle East / Gulf / Asian networks.. (UPDATE Friday : 2 cables were cut / damaged , The two cables, named FLAG Europe Asia and SEA-ME-WE 4, are in close proximity...apparently .. Debs at Moon of Alabama is suspicious )
The cables are easily accessible, but repairs will take 3 weeks and result is that internet conectivity from India and Middle East has been hit very badly.
The Hengchun earthquake (7.1 Richter) on December 26th 2006 off Taiwan (LP post) Initially Taiwan's largest telephone company, Chunghwa Telecom Co, said damage to an undersea cable had disrupted 98% of Taiwan's communications with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
This resulted in widespread disruption to FOREX trading / stock markets and problems for over 2 weeks in the far East whilst repairs were made.
The Wall Street Journal commented December 28: “Asia, which has seen hundreds of billions of dollars of direct investment in recent years, is home to some of the world’s most earthquake-prone areas, and there are fewer cables connecting Asian countries to each other and the rest of the world than linking the US and Europe, making networks there more vulnerable.”
Apparently there are six cable routes within one system across the Atlantic so that customer traffic can survive even multiple cuts which reduces the chances of an outage dramatically.
The Southern Cross high-speed cable loop,that connects Australia and New Zealand to the U.S. has 2 strands of the loop both run through Hawaii through different islands , which is a seismically active area.
**** Reliance Communications is controlled by 49 year old Anil Ambani , who has 1.35 Bn shares = 66.75% of the company.
Between 1999 to 2002 Reliance Infocomm built the data comms backbone for India — 60,000 kilometres of fibre optics, connecting the whole country. This network was commissioned on December 28, 2002, the 70th birth-anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani, ( he died one year earlier ) the company's founder and father of the current chairman.
By buying Yipes Enterprise Services for a US$ 300 MN cash in June 2007 the company entered the US telecoms market.
Anils's brother Mukesh runs Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum . According to Forbes Rich list ,Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani have fortunes worth $ 20.1 billion and $ 18.2 billion, respectively maling them the 6th and 7th richest people inthe world - said to be equivalent to 5% of India's GDP.
SEA - WE - ME 4 cable route.
Keep your eye on Moon of Alabama for more.
