A fiber cable running between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das has been cut, the fourth such instance in roughly a week. The first three, located in the Mediterranean and Persian gulf, were ripped apart by dragging boat anchors and resulted in widespread connectivity headaches throughout Egypt and India. This fourth instance appears to be power related:
quote:The cause of damage is not yet known, but ArabianBusiness.com has been told unofficially the problem is related to the power system and not the result of a ship's anchor cutting the cable, as is thought to be the case in the other three incidents. It is expected to take at least "a few days" to fix, according to one person with knowledge of the situation.
Despite ample speculation that something fishy is afoot, the problems so far appear to be coincidental. As an aside, Techdirt points to a good (though lengthy) Wired News article from 1996 on the laying of undersea cable.