Slashdot Mirror


Third Undersea Cable Cut

Many readers are reporting that another undersea fiber optic cable has been cut, apparently caused by another wayward anchor. It looks like Iran has completely lost Internet connectivity."

23 of 655 comments (clear)

  1. Iran hasn't lost connectivity by anotherone · · Score: 5, Informative

    Iran hasn't lost connectivity, the specific router that Internet Traffic Report is checking has lost connectivity.

    Even the University that hosts the router that ITR is checking is still up: http://www.iust.ac.ir/

    --
    Username taken, please choose another one.
  2. Re:Can anyone enlighten me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, the BBC can enlighten you!

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7222536.stm

  3. Re:Can anyone enlighten me? by Surt · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  4. Re:Can anyone enlighten me? by mikael · · Score: 5, Informative

    The BBC has an article with a cross section of an undersea cable

    The first cable - the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) - was cut at 0800 on 30 January, the firm said.

    INSIDE A SUBMARINE CABLE
    cable infographic
    1 Polyethylene cover
    2,4 Stranded steel armour wires
    3,5 Tar-soaked nylon yarn
    6 Polycarbonate insulator
    7 Copper sheath
    8 Protective core
    9 Optical fibres
    Not to scale

    A second cable thought to lie alongside it - SEA-ME-WE 4, or the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable - was also split.

    FLAG is a 28,000km (17,400 mile) long submarine communications cable that links Australia and Japan with Europe via India and the Middle East.

    SEA-ME-WE 4 is a submarine cable linking South East Asia to Europe via the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

    The two cable cuts meant that the only cable in service connecting Europe to the Middle East via Egypt was the older Sea-M-We 3 system, according to research firm TeleGeography.


    It's amazing that a ship's anchor could have the strength to pull apart two layers of stranded steel armour wires, a layer of copper, kevlar layers, and three polyethylene layers.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  5. Silence at last! by Radon360 · · Score: 3, Informative

    All my co-workers phones aren't ringing off the hook with callers trying to subscribe them to worthless trade publications today (very likely a coincidence, but it sounds good anyway). So, now we know how to really stop all those nagging calls from people with really poor english on a noisy connection. Then again, so goes many of the tech support and customer service lines, too.

  6. Re:Iran has completely lost Internet connectivity? by TurinPT · · Score: 3, Informative

    5? close guess! The actual number is 18 million.
    Yeah I know you're a troll but I don't care.

  7. Re:Shallow seas by almightynayr · · Score: 5, Informative

    please quit pulling numbers out of your ass.. The waters are overall very shallow and have a maximum depth of 90 metres and an average depth of 50 metres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persian_Gulf#Geography

  8. Re:Third cut? by bigdavex · · Score: 5, Informative

    Who the hell thinks this comment is funny?

    I hope that people who have seen Star Wars think it's funny. I'm sorry if I offended you.

    I don't support my country's Middle East policy, for the record.

    --
    -Dave
  9. Re:Third cut? by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 3, Informative

    ""A communications disruption can mean only one thing - invasion."
    Who the hell thinks this comment is funny? "


    Lighten up Francis. It's a quote from Star Wars, Episode 1.

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  10. chances? by Tom · · Score: 2, Informative
    Coincidence?

    It looks like Iran has completely lost Internet connectivity." Ok, I'm paranoid, but it is an election year, and the world would be surprised a lot if Bush didn't fuck up something else before he goes.

    Seriously, what are the chances of this?
    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  11. Re:How to tap the cable by RxScram · · Score: 3, Informative

    The USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23, the newest (and heavily modified version) of the Seawolf class submarines) was NOT retrofitted... it was specifically designed and built to be a replacement for the USS Parche. The keel of the Carter was laid in 1998, and the submarine was commissioned in early 2005.

  12. Re:How to tap the cable by threephaseboy · · Score: 2, Informative
    Well gee, First hit on google for "uss jimmy carter":

    This is due to the insertion of a section known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), ... The MMP may also be used as an underwater splicing chamber for tapping of undersea fiber optic cables. This role was formerly filled by the decommissioned USS Parche (SSN-683).
    --
    .
  13. Re:Third cut? do i smell Conspiracy BS? by rve · · Score: 2, Informative

    The cables were cut in three different seas, hundreds, even thousands of miles apart.

  14. Re:Third cut? by RodgerDodger · · Score: 2, Informative

    The first two got cut because an Egyptian port started ordering ships to anchor-at-sea in a new area - one which the cables passed through.

    It's not that ship anchors have become more dangerous, it's that humans have become more careless.

    --
    "Software is too expensive to build cheaply"
  15. Re:Shallow seas by ivan256 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Pick a year, and enter "Undersea fiber cut " into google.

    Then realize that *your* recent memory isn't a very good thing to base odds on. Better to search.

    This one particularly stands out from my top-of-the-head recollection: http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/388

    There has been at least one major undersea cable disruption ever year of this decade. Either maintenance accidents, shipping accidents, earthquakes....

  16. Re:How to tap the cable by Eric+Smith · · Score: 2, Informative

    Depends on how you define "retrofit". The MMP wasn't part of the plan for it when the keel was laid.

  17. Re:Proposal for special +10 brilliant rating by Nerdfest · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's a site called SeenOnSlash.com that tends to have a good selection of the best comments, including this one. They have an RSS feed as well, which is nice.

  18. Re:Third cut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    There are almost certainly at least a handful (I feel fairly comfortable saying around 5-10) of diverse long-haul fiber routes into Tampa, owned by multiple fiber providers, and almost certainly more into Miami, some through Tampa and some not.

  19. Re:Third cut? by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yesterday upon the stair
    I met a man who wasn't there.
    He wasn't there again today
    I wish that man would go away.

      Hugh Means (1875 - 1965)

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  20. paranoia by grumling · · Score: 3, Informative

    Maybe they all got cut because they all run in parallel? An anchor dragging along a canal, breaks one immediately, and opens up the other two, exposing the bare fibers. The current or wake from passing ships break more and more fibers, leading to more outages. I've seen pix of the suez canal, and it doesen't seem all that wide, compared to the ships that pass through it.

    There's one other possibility: the companies who own the networks are leasing glass from each other and there's really only one cable. For example, Level3 (lvlt) builds a network. Since it expensive to build out, they trade glass with whoever may have dark fiber available (often times telcos). It shows up on the books as theirs, but really it maintained by a telco. Happens all the time in the US.

    --
    "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
  21. Re:Accidental/occidental by geekoid · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dude, I've seen someone roll 15 d6 and have them ALL come up one.
    I've seen 7 rolled 12 times in a row.
    It is known that randomness tends to be clumpy.

    The US has no interest in cutting those cable and it make no sense for them to do so.

    Now something might be going on. Sure, but lets not be jumping to wild speculation.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  22. Re:WHat? are you serious? by LaskoVortex · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can't prove the positive either. You can only infer one hypothesis or the other based on testing each, arriving at a refined hypothesis through the process of elimination. In science, we call that "science".

    If you postulate it is not a coincidence it is upon YOU to show evidence of wrong doing.

    One must formulate a hypothesis before anyone can test it. If I postulate, I have no responsibility to show evidence of such postulation--other people can do that. If they are wise, they will consider this possibility here, or risk more cables getting cut through mechanisms they have chosen to ignore.

    Let us consider the facts here. For as many years as I know of, no cable has been cut. Lets think about the probabilities. We'll assume one cable is cut per 1500 days (< 5 yrs) on accident. So, on any given day, the probability is 1/1500 assuming its just another day at the beach (so to speak). Now, I have read about 3 cables being cut in as many days. We can use binomial probability to determine our expectation for 3 cables being cut in just your ordinary average year: 0.0018. How about an ordinary average week? 1.034e-8. Ok, the latter was a pretty improbable event, wouldn't you agree? How about your ordinary average stretch of 3 days?

    So you are going to tell me that its even less likely that the cables were cut by one nation or organization acting maliciously to achieve some end?

    [Tinny voice sounding like you]You know what, actually I think the terrorists who hijacked the planes on 911 were not colluding with each other--but I am exempt from proving this because "you can't prove the negative".[/Tinny voice] Do you see how idiotic you sound?

    We knew to look for colluding terrorists after 911 because three improbable events (planes running into buildings) happened closely in time. Do you see the similarities, or are you going to assert that its just a coincidence?

    --
    Just callin' it like I see it.
  23. Re:Third cut? by gr8scot · · Score: 2, Informative

    You make the assumption... That is your own assumption, and is not quite correct. You actually don't know that I've concluded one version or another. What I have said to you so far is only that your estimate of the improbability of the specific claims reported might not account for some relevant, statistically significant variables, such as strength of ocean currents and numbers of vessels anchored in the vicinities of important fiber optic cables. I don't know that to be the correct explanation. I do insist, based on what has been reported and on what remains totally unreported, on not discarding the benign explanation out of hand before I decide which version of events seems likeliest to me.

    ... that what is reported is always accurate, or even the intended truth. That might be a little bit naive. Oh no, those in control or who might lose face never manipulate the media, do they?

    For systems with built-in redundancy, you might question the odds, of a complete failure. OK, let's get specific. "For systems with built-in redundancy" in general, I do indeed tend to more suspiciously "question the odds of a complete failure." It depends how redundant, and what type of system you're describing. So, back to my first comment to you in this thread, I don't have specific information that supports the conclusion that the reported interruptions are necessarily beyond the realm of possibility. Do you?

    When talking about foreign nations whose leaders have antagonistic personal or ideological relationships, I also tend to be less willing to assume the worst. More than enough of that goes on without my help, for my liking. I might turn out to be wrong, but if inaction is incorrectly taken until more solid information is available, no harm is done. Making the opposite mistake is a more serious matter.

    Or why do cables come ashore, at ports or where ships normally anchor? Or do they? It was suggested above that because of lousy weather, many ports have had difficulty accommodating all the boats wanting to dock. As a result, there have recently been vessels anchored where they normally do not, close to shore but not in designated ports. Until I have more specific information about a particular act of sabotage, I'm not going to assume that I know something that I really know to be mere speculation, however plausible the explanation is for the limited set of facts you're considering. That kind of thing seems to me more suited to a James Bond movie than discussion of real-world events. Do you like James Bond? Bourne?

    Some of these considerations might even be a bit of a credulity stretch don't you think. Not until I know that the waters in the locations in question were in fact calm at the time, and that whatever ship's anchors sliced each line had "no good reason" to be anchored in each of those places. So far, I don't know anything of the kind, partly because you have provided no specific information to lead me to that assumption. Of course, neither has anybody else, but most people have not made the claims that you have.

    Have a great day!
    --
    All 19 hijackers were known terrorists 09-10-2001. Lack of FBI intelligence does not justify warrantless wiretaps..