Red Sea cable cuts disrupt internet in parts of Asia, Middle East

Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access on Sunday in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said, though it was not immediately clear what caused the incident.

There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in the past.

Microsoft announced via a status website that the Mideast “may experience increased latency due to undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea”. The Redmond, Washington-based firm did not immediately elaborate, though it said that internet traffic not moving through the Middle East “is not impacted”.

NetBlocks, which monitors internet access, said “a series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries”, which it said included India and Pakistan. It blamed “failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia”.

The Southeast Asia–Middle East–western Europe 4 cable is run by Tata Communications, part of the Indian conglomerate. The India-Middle East-Western Europe cable is run by another consortium overseen by Alcatel-Lucent. Both firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Pakistan Telecommunications, a telecommunication giant in that country, noted that the cuts had taken place in a statement on Saturday.

  

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