Illegally anchored ship takes out Egypt, Saudi, India telcom

[rage2]

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSL3017857720080130

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5622420/Internet-disrupted-across-Middle-East

Some boat anchors down onto the 2 lines that connect Egypt/South Asia to Europe. Took out most of India's call centers. They can't make phone calls out to the US or Europe, and Dubai is completely out with zero network access. Banks are shut down, stock exchange fucked... Egypt considering declaring a national disaster because the break is 8km off the coast, weather is brutal right now, and estimating 10-15 days to fix.

Anyone with India offices affected?

[Canmorite]

Oh boy. This is going to reak havoc on the markets and global money managers.

[01RedDX]

.

[rage2]

Ya, latest reports all say it's a boat. Here's another article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aWe706hsLNdY&refer=europe


Six ships were diverted from Alexandria port and one may have severed the cables with an anchor, said a spokesman for Flag Telecom Group Ltd., which operates one of the cables. The incident took place 8.3 kilometers (5.2 miles) from Alexandria beach in northern Egypt, the spokesman, who asked not to be named, said in an interview from Mumbai, India.

Right now, google news is my only source of info. It's impossible to contact anyone over there for an update lol.

Our connectivity to our India office is fine, just slow as balls today haha. It's like dialup or something. Zero chance of video conferencing lol.

[Alterac]

Sounds like fun.. Maybe they should have thought about that single point of failure before it broke?

[rage2]

There is redundancy. Unfortunately, a ship dragging an anchor for a few km's tore all that shit up!

[97'Scort]

Too early for us to tell :) We'll find out tomorrow I guess!

[rage2]

You should know by now. It actually happened around midnight-1am our time last night.

[Melinda]

Originally posted by rage2
Took out most of India's call centers. They can't make phone calls out to the US or Europe,
As much of the rest of it sucks, I cant help but feel that this is karma for the Indian offices of various companies spaming North America with the "legal" forms of telemarketing. :rofl:

This will be bad for the global markets though, which is definately something we don't need. Here's hoping they can get this resolved as quickly as possible! Haha hope that boat has several billion dollars in insurance!

[Konj]

terrorist activity
they got terrorist scuba divers now

[97'Scort]

Originally posted by rage2
You should know by now. It actually happened around midnight-1am our time last night.

Guess we're fine then. Haven't had to deal with the Mumbai office in the last week, so I won't know until I check tomorrow :)

[BlackArcher101]

What the hell? Aren't critical lines like this usually placed into a trench, buried, then a mound/berm placed over top to prevent this from happening? Thought they were always designed with a dragging anchor in mind.

[boredengineer]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101
What the hell? Aren't critical lines like this usually placed into a trench, buried, then a mound/berm placed over top to prevent this from happening? Thought they were always designed with a dragging anchor in mind.

:nut: A lot of cabling is just resting on the bottom especially in areas where you can't trench because it is either too deep or the ocean floor is not treachable. Most cabling out there is not trenched and just sits on the ocean floor.

[Big Dangerous]

Wow, no satellite backup? I'm not afraid of them at all anymore.

[Toms-SC]

99.999% Up-time Guaranteed!

[Antonito]

Originally posted by Big Dangerous
Wow, no satellite backup? I'm not afraid of them at all anymore.

:rofl: :rofl:

I'm kind of hoping that this totally fucks with the India outsourcing branch of the engineering company I work. Then again, they do terrible work, and that doesn't seem to phase anybody.

[Big Dangerous]

Originally posted by Antonito


:rofl: :rofl:

I'm kind of hoping that this totally fucks with the India outsourcing branch of the engineering company I work. Then again, they do terrible work, and that doesn't seem to phase anybody. India is the new China.. do you happen to have an American Express? :rofl: It took me 2 hours to communicate to their customer service what would have taken minutes to solve with an english speaking individual.

[kerry]

Originally posted by 01RedDX
Are you sure that a ship was to blame? All the articles are saying that the cause isn't clear yet. Who doesn't have tech support centers in India?

Terrorism???

Looks like all of the scare tactics are working on ya bud! Guess what, we're in a state of emergency too! When the weather got cold here in Calgary it was really the ghost of Saddam Hussein aiming his giant USB fan from his "afterlife" laptop at Alberta. We are fucked.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/18/70384439_ba1fd5b9de.jpg

[Bimmer88]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101
What the hell? Aren't critical lines like this usually placed into a trench, buried, then a mound/berm placed over top to prevent this from happening? Thought they were always designed with a dragging anchor in mind.

This is what I would of thought too! atleast 1M deep but guess not... some those people over there don't know how to dig I guess... and make a damn trench for a cable.

Ohwell interesting day for sure! Maybe the ocean currents blew the sand and silt and exposed the cable lol.

[mekeni]

that's probably why Mastercard hotline is very busy.. been on-hold for > 30 mins now

[98type_r]

The lines are only trenched for the first few km on the ocean floor, after that they just let it sit on the surface where it lands.

[01RedDX]

.

[Big Dangerous]

Originally posted by 01RedDX


That's why I put a question mark after terrorism. Three of them.

Don't call people 'bud' :thumbsdow You're better than that. I thought she was pretty accurate.

[/////AMG]

Ohh this is interesting. Not good for the markets.
Can't wait for some more news.

[Eleanor]

Originally posted by Big Dangerous
she

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[mx73someday]

It happened again near Dubai?

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

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by mx73someday
It happened again near Dubai?

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

No way it is a coincidence.

[Crymson]

What the hell is going on out there?

A 4th cable was cut yesterday, and a 5th cable was cut today!

Something very strange is going on.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/06/cut-four-undersea-cables-shame-on-you-cut-a-fifth-also-shame/

[b_t]

Okay... maybe it is terrorism.

[bspot]

5 cables right before Iran was going to launch a huge oil market, the first not backed by the US dollar, that rellied on internet communication. Hmmm....

[JRSC00LUDE]

^
It's likely the american gov't doing it then!

[Crymson]

^^^

agreed.

[Chris101]

^^^^^

Disagreed.

I am convinced this is just a really badass viral marketing campaign for "Cloverfield 2 : This time its digital...".

[Crymson]

HAHA! Oh noez! the monster is cutting our interwebZ!

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
^
It's likely the american gov't doing it then!

:werd: Great time to do it to, with super tuesday news, this thing is hardly a blip on the radar, and I doubt terrorists have the means, or the want to seperate themselves from the rest of the world.

[01RedDX]

.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by bspot
5 cables right before Iran was going to launch a huge oil market, the first not backed by the US dollar, that rellied on internet communication. Hmmm....

I thought they launched it last year? That's why US keep saying they have nukes. Just like Iraq got WMDs when they want to trade oil in non-US $.