Subsea cable repairs

Two ships have started repairing undersea cables that were cut on 19 December disrupting telephone and net services to Asia and the Middle East, from BBC News:

The cables were cut about 140km off the coast of Sicily and are thought to have been damaged by a ship. Egypt says it has been able to restore most of its communications by re-routing services, but other parts of the Middle East remain badly affected. The same day, a suspected earthquake damaged the main cable to Malta..

Jonathan Wright - director of wholesale products at Interoute which manages part of the optical fibre network - told the BBC that once one of the cables gets repaired, telecommunication companies will have far more options to get their services back online. "SEA-ME-WE4 is the newest line. It has the largest capacity and so is probably the most critical line. Once that is repaired it should take some of the pressure off the one remaining cable."

"As luck would have it, a second submarine line was being installed to Malta earlier this month and that should go on line today, which will help alleviate some of the communication problems Malta is suffering," he added..

In January the same line was damaged off Egypt's Mediterranean coast, severely disrupting internet and phone communications for many in the Middle East for days, although only two lines were snapped then. A few hours before the three lines were cut, a suspected sub-sea earthquake damaged a local GO cable to Malta, severely disrupting communications to the island.