Undersea cables cut in Red Sea, disrupting internet access in West Asia; NetBlocks says India hit too

DUBAI: Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access in parts of Asia and West Asia, experts said on Sunday, though it wasn't immediately clear what caused the incident.There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen's Houthi rebels, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in the past.Undersea cables are one of the backbones of the internet, along with satellite connections and land-based cables. Typically, internet service providers have multiple access points and reroute traffic if one fails, though it can slow down access for users.Microsoft announced via a status website that West Asia "may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea." The Redmond, Washington-based firm did not immediately elaborate, though it said that internet traffic not moving through West Asia "is not impacted."NetBlocks, which monitors internet access, said "a series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries," which it said included India and Pakistan.

It blamed "failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia."The South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 cable is run by Tata Communications. The India-Middle East-Western Europe cable is run by another consortium overseen by Alcatel Submarine Networks. Neither firm responded to requests for comment. Pakistan Telecommunications Co. Ltd., a telecommunication giant in that country, noted that the cuts had taken place in a statement on Saturday.Saudi Arabia did not acknowledge the disruption and authorities there did not respond to a request for comment. In Kuwait, authorities also said the FALCON GCX cable running through the Red Sea had been cut, causing disruptions in the small, oil-rich nation. GCX did not respond to a request for comment.In the UAE, internet users on the country's state-owned Du and Etisalat networks complained of slower internet speeds. The govt did not acknowledge the disruption. Subsea cables can be cut by anchors dropped from ships, but can also be targeted in attacks. It can take weeks for repairs to be made as a ship and crew must locate themselves over the damaged cable. ap