UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Damage to an undersea telecommunications cable linking the United Arab Emirates to the Gulf state has seriously disrupted Internet services in Qatar.
This is the fourth similar incident in less than a week, which has raised suspicion of intent.
The
first two breaks affected Internet access and international calls in Egypt, the Gulf and south Asia,
while disruption resulting from damage to the latter two occurred in the Gulf
region.
ArabianBusiness.com was told unofficially that the problem is related to the
power system.
Egypt also said this Monday, explaining that the damage is not the result of what was predicted for the previous cuts, a ship's anchor cutting the cable. The country's Transport Ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables shows no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.
"The ministry's maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut, and no ships sailed the area," the Communications Ministry said in a statement. "The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone, and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships."
The short time between the cable breaks and their locations has sparked concerns that the cables were intentionally damaged.
The damage caused major problems for Internet users in Qatar over the weekend, but Qatar Telecom said its loss of capacity has been kept below 40 percent due to a large number of alternative routes for transmission.
Qatar is located in the south of the Arabian Gulf, which also is known as the Persian Gulf. Qatar is surrounded by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran and Bahrain.
The cable was damaged on Friday between the Qatari island of Haloul and the United Arab Emirates island of Das, Qatar Telecom said Sunday.
The cable's repair is expected to take at least a few days.
It is not clear how badly Internet access in Iran has been affected by the cable breaks. The embassy in Abu Dhabi has not reported problems. However, online reports on Internet connectivity, citing a router in Tehran, appear to indicate that there currently is no connection to the rest of world.
Virtual
blackout occurred for sections of the Gulf Arab region Wednesday, when two
cables were severed near Alexandria on Egypt's
north coast.
The initial breaches were in segments of two intercontinental cables known as
Sea-ME-We-4 and Flag Europe-Asia.
The situation worsened Friday when Flag, part of India's Reliance Communications, revealed that a third cable, Falcon, also had been damaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The fourth cable break reportedly also occurred Friday.
Flag Telecom, owner of two of the affected cables off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, downplayed conspiracy theories Monday.
A Flag Telecom representative told ArabianBusiness.com that the cause of the breaks will be unknown until repair ships reach the site of the damage. However, the company representative said it seemed unusual that all four cables were damaged in such a short time.
Flag Telecom said a
repair ship initially was expected to arrive at the location of the third
damaged cable in the next few days, but bad weather has prevented the vessel
from leaving the Abu Dhabi
port. The ship is set to depart Monday morning, and the repairs are expected to
take five days.
The third cable is located 56 kilometers from Dubai
on a segment between the United Arab Emirates
and Oman.
Etisalat said it had been informed by Flag Telecom that the problem should be
fixed in two weeks. The operator of the other cable plans to carry out repairs
Friday.
Flag said on Saturday that a ship was expected to reach the cable repair ground
by Tuesday.
