Broken Internet Cables

[robcaro]

Regarding this link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080207/tc_nm/internet_disruption_dc_1;_ylt=AnO3j1THwZcxcUl8ZfnP3ikE1vAI

How do these undersea cables get cut or broken? Perhaps it is sabatoge or do they just break from sea pressure?

[friedo]

The official explanation on these is that they were damaged by ship anchors in the area. It is pretty strange that so many cables got damaged in such a short timeframe, though, so who knows.

[Squink]

From this thread in GD:
3 undersea cables cut in 3 days … coincidence, or prelude to some action?

@Squink

I just ran across this lovely pdf:
Worldwide Trends in Submarine Cable System Faults
It turns out that, as of 2000-2003, over 70% of all cable faults are due to “external aggression.” Of these faults, over 50% are due to fishing, 18% or so due to anchors. Geological events account for about 5% of these faults.
The fault rate per thousand kilometers of cable runs at about 0.02 for cables deeper than 1000 meters. It increases above 1000 meters to the point where 80% of all faults occur at depths less than 200 meters.

Now if we can just learn where this present crop of faults occurred, we can figure out how odd the events are.

[Ludovic]

I thought that the Internets ran through tubes.

[ChrisBooth12]

@Ludovic

I thought that the Internets ran through tubes.

youtubes if im not mistaken

[robcaro]

Very interesting answers. The cables between Colombia and USA have been broken only once and perhaps twice in the past 5 years. I guess $hit happens.

[Eliphalet]

There was a report on NPR’s Future Tense this morning about this, and the interviewee (Eric Schoonover of TeleGeography) stated that this sort of damage happened, and that there were 25 ships throughout the world serving as floating troubleshooters for underwater fiberoptic cable.

Quoting Eric Schoonover From Jon Gordon’s Blog:

I was on the phone with you last year talking about an earthquake that took out seven of eight cables connecting to Taiwan in the Luzon Strait. That was a lot more capacity down and a lot more countries affected but since there was a ready explanation nobody jumped to the conclusion that it was some sort of malicious act.

I cannot find the actual podcast yet, but Jon Gordon’s Future Tense blog regarding this is here:
Jon Gordon’s Blog

I’m thinking this is just a fluke, and the conspiracy buffs will have a field day.

Eli

[robcaro]

I would suppose that fibre optic cables are more prone to breakage than copper cables.

[Rayne_Man]

@robcaro

I would suppose that fibre optic cables are more prone to breakage than copper cables.

Not really, as both sorts cables will be protected by an outer layer of something like a steel-wire armour.

[gotpasswords]

@robcaro

I would suppose that fibre optic cables are more prone to breakage than copper cables.

They’re about equally fragile on the seabed, susceptible to damage from deep-water aquatic life like worms that bore into the cables - once sea water gets inside, the segment is pretty much ruined - and mechanical assaults from trawling nets and anchors.

Here’s a PDF of a news release from FLAG Telecom. Seems they found an abandoned anchor wrapped up around the damaged cable between Dubai and Oman. (The name FLAG is an acronym for Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe.)

FLAG expects to have both the FALCON cable (the one hit with an anchor) and the FLAG Europe-Asia cable (exact nature of the damage not described) repaired by this Sunday. Pretty impressive, considering the nature of having to find the broken ends hundreds or thousands of feet down, pull up one end, splice on a patch segment, pick up the other end and complete the patch, then gently lay it back down to the ocean floor and re-map the exact placement of where it landed.

[Shagnasty]

If these people simply invested in an AOL dial-up account with stateside numbers and a high value calling card, they would be all set.