Repair Crews Reach Vicinity of Damaged Cables In Mediterranean

Posted by timothy on Tuesday December 23, 2008 @05:40AM from the now-we-need-a-plucky-diver dept.

GWMAW writes "A robotic submarine searched beneath the Mediterranean on Sunday for damaged communications cables, two days after Web and telephone access was knocked out for much of the Middle East. Telecommunication providers from Cairo to Dubai continued Sunday to scramble to reroute voice and data traffic through potentially costly detours in Asia and North America after the lines running under the Mediterranean Sea were damaged Friday." According to the article, "Once found, the cable ends will be pulled to the surface and repaired on deck — a process that could take several days."

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How do they do it? by tsa · 2008-12-23 05:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

How do they repair the cables? Especially with glass fibre I wouldn't know what to do.

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Re:Satellites FTW? by karmatic · 2008-12-23 06:39 · Score: 5, Interesting

Yet another reason why we need a better satellite infrastructure. If everyone were using satellites, a reroute through Asia would be unnecessary.
Except for the whole "240ms minimum latency" thing. Also, it's a lot easier to fix a malfunctioning cable than a malfunctioning satellite. Also, bad weather over the Satellite NOC can take out everyone's connection.