Graphic: a broken web

Engineers are engaged in a deep-sea operation to restore internet and telephone access to millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia after the undersea cables that form one of the world’s main communication arteries were severed.

A seabed earthquake is believed to be responsible for damaging three fibreoptic cables in the Mediterranean and leaving at least 15 countries with slow or no internet access and poor-quality telephone lines.

Although a team of specialist French engineers and an underwater robot nicknamed Hector are working round the clock, the damaged cables are unlikely to be repaired until Thursday.

The cables, which carry more than 75 per cent of all communication traffic between Europe and the Middle East, were broken last week in what experts said was an illustration of the vulnerability of modern communications. “Undersea cables connect the world,” Alan Mauldin, research director of TeleGeography, a telecommunications analysis firm, said. “But they are subject to external events. If three of them break, that causes a severe problem.”

Internet capacity to Egypt, India and Saudi Arabia was reduced by more than 50 per cent, according to France Télécom, the French operator which is responsible for maintenance of the two damaged Sea Me We cables in the Mediterranean. Sudan and the Maldive Islands lost all internet connections, officials said.

Telecommunications companies have been seeking to offset the disruption by using spare capacity on other undersea networks. “They’re rerouting traffic the other way round the world, but that takes time,” Mr Mauldin said. “It’s like shutting down one half of the highway and getting everyone to drive the other way.”

France Télécom said its engineers believed that the cables had either been damaged in an earthquake or by a ship’s anchor. “As they are at a depth of 200 metres, the first hypothesis seems far more likely.”

It said that the Raymond Croze, a France Télécom maintenance ship with a crew of 64 on board, had reached the zone of the damage between Sicily and Tunisia on Sunday. Hector the robot was scouring the seabed for the point at which the cables had been broken. “They are buried in a trench dug out of the bottom of the sea, and they are covered in mud, so it’s not easy,” it said.

The damaged section will be lifted on to the ship and repaired. This operation involves soldering thousands of tiny, individual fibres through a microscope and then checking that each one of them works. “We hope to have the two cables working again by Christmas,” France Telécom said The Sea Me We 4 and Sea Me We 3 cables are run by a consortium of about 30 telecommunications operators, including France Télécom.

The Flag EA cable, which was also damaged, is operated by the Indian company Reliance Globalcom, which said that it had contracted a private repair ship to locate and repair the damage. It said that it hoped to have the cable working by the end of this week.

Reliance Globalcom said that the Teliri, an Italian cable ship, was in the area to seek and repair the damaged cable using a remotely operated submarine.

Indian officials said that more than 60 per cent of telecommunications traffic had been restored by rerouting traffic, while Egypt said that it had achieved 80 per cent capacity.

“This is the third major incident in three years, so it does show that there is vulnerability,” Mr Mauldin said.