Regions Face Internet Slowdowns as Undersea Cable Cuts Reveal Critical Role of Red Sea in Global Connectivity

Millions of internet users in India, Pakistan, and parts of the Middle East have recently experienced significant outages as a result of damaged undersea cables in the Red Sea. Even in the UAE, networks such as Etisalat and Du experienced slowdowns.The event illustrates how much the world's internet relies on these secret lifelines beneath the water.

The outage affected two major cables: SMW4, operated by Tata Communications, and IMEWE, which is handled by a consortium led by Alcatel-Lucent. However the specific cause is still unknown. Damage to undersea cables can occur in a variety of ways, including incidents such as a ship's anchor cutting through, as well as purposeful attacks.

The cable damage occurred during a critical period in the Red Sea. In Yemen, Houthi rebels have attacked nearby ships. Some authorities even claimed that they might be behind the cable cuts, although the group has denied it. Regardless of who caused the damage, repairing subsea cables is extremely tough. It normally takes weeks because a special ship and skilled crew must locate the broken portion deep beneath the sea and carefully repair it.

The Red Sea is especially important because it acts as a major transit point for internet traffic between Asia and Europe. According to TeleGeography, more than 90% of internet traffic between Europe and Asia travels through cables in this region. This means that a single reduction can effect millions of consumers from multiple countries.

Undersea internet cables are not laid by governments but by private companies and global consortiums (a group of companies or organizations working together on a common project) using specialised ships that carefully avoid hazards on the ocean floor. In India, major players include Tata Communications, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Sify Technologies and BSNL, while globally, companies like SubCom and Alcatel Submarine Networks lead the work. India currently has about 17 international cables landing at stations in Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin, and Trivandrum. To strengthen connectivity further, new projects such as the India-Asia-Express (IAX), India-Europe-Express (IEX), and 2Africa Pearls are underway, with tech giants like Meta also investing in massive cable systems that will connect India with the US, South Africa, Brazil, and beyond.

For India's rapidly increasing digital economy, building undersea networks is no longer an option; it is a must.These new lines will speed up internet connections, make them more stable, and make it less likely that they will go down.The recent cut of the Red Sea cable is a troubling sign of how unstable our global internet connection may be. India needs to keep building safe and strong infrastructure that can handle future problems in order to stay up with digital growth.

This article is based on information from India Today