Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast (story below)
Don't get me wrong. As some of you know, I was teaching about the Internet
at community colleges back before most people knew it existed, and I like it
and use it on a daily basis.
But as Scotty said, "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is
to stop up the drain." (Trust a nerd to give you a Star Trek quote.:-)
Whether these cables were cut on purpose or by accident, it highlights the
vulnerability of this very complicated system that requires infrastructure
around the world. As we all know (and we hams prove every Field Day), give us
a generator, a tent and some trees to string up some antenna wire, and well
have a shortwave station on the air quickly. And the intended recipients will
only need a small portable battery-powered radio. To get a more reliable,
larger coverage area takes a bit more work on the transmitter site, but it's
still a system that is much tougher to stop than the Internet.
We all know this, but you might want to pass along this story to those who
say, What is the need for shortwave radio when we have the Internet?
Hope to see you at the Fest.
73,
Curt W4CP
Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast
(CNN) -- An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian
Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying
Internet and telephone traffic in three days.
Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut
undersea cable.
Ships have been dispatched to repair two undersea cables damaged on Wednesday
off Egypt.
FLAG Telecom, which owns one of the cables, said repairs were expected to be
completed by February 12. France Telecom, part owner of the other cable, said
it was uncertain when repairs on it would be repaired.
Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that
consults on global Internet issues, said the cables off Egypt were likely
damaged by ships' anchors.
The loss of the two Mediterranean cables -- FLAG Telecom's FLAG Europe-Asia
cable and SeaMeWe-4, a cable owned by a consortium of more than a dozen
telecommunications companies -- has snarled Internet and phone traffic from
Egypt to India.
Officials said Friday it was unclear what caused the damage to FLAG's FALCON
cable about 50 kilometers off Dubai. A repair ship was en route, FLAG said.
Eric Schoonover, a senior analyst with TeleGeography, said the FALCON cable
is designed on a "ring system," taking it on a circuit around the Persian Gulf
and enabling traffic to be more easily routed around damage.
Schoonover said the two cables damaged Wednesday collectively account for as
much as three-quarters of the international communications between Europe and
the Middle East, so their loss had a much bigger effect.
Without the use of the FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4, some carriers
were forced to reroute their European traffic around the globe, which could
cause delays, Beckert said.
Other carriers could use SeaMeWe-3, an older cable that remained the only
direct connection from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. Because this cable
is older, it has a smaller capacity than the two damaged cables, Beckert said.
Still, Beckert stressed that although the problem created a "big pain" for
many of carriers, it did not compare to the several months of disruption in
East Asia in 2006 after an earthquake damaged seven undersea cables near Taiwan.
FULL STORY:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/01/internet.outage/index.html
Curt Phillips, CEM CMVP
W4CP ex-KD4YU; WB4LHI
ARRL Life; QCWA; SKCC; NASWA
Tar Heel Scanner/SWL Group
WTSB AM1090- Sat. Mornings 6AM-9AM
Raleigh, NC USA
curt<at>nerdster.net
--
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough." - Mario
Andretti
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