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The FALCON undersea cable disruption involved damage to at least five high-speed Internet submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East from January 23 to February 4, 2008. Three of these disruptions were initially attributed by officials to accidents involving ship’s anchors; however, reviews of surveillance footage of the area by Egyptian authorities revealed no ships in the area.

Some have suggested something more sinister is afoot as the only two countries in the area not affected were Israel and Iraq  sparking conspiracy theories that are spreading through the Internet. Telecommunication companies fear more cable disruptions in the future. The incident has also called into doubt the safety of the Internet cable system. Others have said that cable cuts occur frequently, and the later outages are merely coincidence with no great effect on internet traffic.

 

Cables damaged

January 23

Although it was not reported at the time, there was a cut off FALCON on January 23. The FALCON cable system connects several countries in the Persian Gulf and India.

January 30

On January 30, 2008, news agencies reported Internet services were widely disrupted in the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent following damage to the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG Telecom cables in the Mediterranean Sea. The New York Times reported that the damage occurred to the two systems separately near Alexandria and Marseilles.

While the respective contributions of the two cable systems to this blackout is unclear, network outage graphs show anomalies at 0430 UTC and again at 0800 UTC. The cause of the damage to SEA-ME-WE 4 or FLAG has not been declared by either cable operator. A number of sources speculated these were caused by a dragging ship anchor near Alexandria. The Egyptian Maritime Transport Ministry reviewed one day of complete video footage beginning 12 hours before and through 12 hours after the service disruption, concluding the cause of damage was not surface craft as no ships were traced sailing through the area of the alleged wire damage. The Kuwaitis also do not directly charge sea-faring vessels, instead referring to “weather conditions and maritime traffic.”

February 1

Two days after the initial break, it was reported that the FALCON cable was cut between Muscat, Oman and Dubai, UAE. This cut was between different landing points than the January 23 cut, FLAG Telecom issued a press release later, stating the “FALCON cable is reported cut at 0559 hrs GMT on February 1, 2008. Location of cut is at 56 km from Dubai, UAE on segment between UAE and Oman.”

February 3

On February 3, 2008, Qtel reported that a cable called DOHA-HALOUL connecting Qatar to the United Arab Emirates had been damaged, causing disruptions in already damaged Middle Eastern communication networks. It became the fourth cable to be damaged in 5 days. The location of the break is between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das. The problem is said to be related to the power system.

February 4

On February 4, 2008 the Khaleej Times reported that SEA-ME-WE 4 had also been damaged at another location, near Penang, Malaysia. The date of this damage was not given.

 from wikipedia