Several telecom companies in the Middle East are planning to invest in a joint undersea cable to prevent cable cuts, such as the one that disrupted Internet services last week.
Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Lebanon’s Ogero and the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat will spend $400 million over the next two years on a link between India and Europe.
The project will also involve Indian and European operators and is intended to avoid Internet disruptions when cables are severed, the Middle East economic magazine MEED reported.
Lines running under the Mediterranean Sea were damaged on Friday, causing Internet and telephone disruptions throughout the region [1]. The exact cause of the damage was unclear.
A French repair crew has begun repairing the damaged lines.
Last week’s cutoff followed similar halts to networks in the Gulf in January and February which were said to be caused either by earthquakes or by a ship’s anchor.
Internet has become an important means of generating revenue in the Middle East and a severed cable can deal trade a heavy blow.
Cutoffs impacted businesses and customers that rely on the Internet to carry out transactions.
The new cable is expected to start operating in late 2009 or early 2010, but it will only be providing a fraction of its potential capacity by that time.
The Middle East region currently relies on just three under sea cables to carry its Internet traffic, MEED reported.
Submarine cables are the backbone of the international telecommunications network.
According to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), almost 100 percent of transoceanic internet traffic is sent via submarine cables.
The undersea cable network is designed to be resilient, but they are prone to damage, either inflicted by human activity such as fishing and shipping, or natural hazards such as submarine earthquakes, extreme weather, or volcanic activity.
This can result in disruptions in many industries such as banking, airline bookings, internet shopping, education, health, defense and individual communication.