Telecommunications and technology companies are being forced to reroute internet traffic in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen's Houthi militia have made the area increasingly unstable. The British daily newspaper Financial Times reported this at the weekend.
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According to the report, US tech group Microsoft said last week that “ongoing cable disruptions” in the Red Sea were affecting overall capacity on the east coast of Africa and that it was therefore rerouting internet traffic. The freighter Rubymar, which was most likely attacked by the Houthi militia and later sank, cut four submarine data cables with its anchor at the end of February. The massive damage to submarine cables, in turn, endangers connections and services around the world.
In support of the Palestinian war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have been repeatedly attacking merchant ships passing through the Red Sea for weeks. Recently, these attacks have escalated and have claimed the first lives. However, the Houthis have denied intentionally attacking submarine cables.
Several companies are taking action
In addition to Microsoft, other companies have also responded, according to the Financial Times. Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications said it had taken measures to redirect affected internet traffic. Seacom, which also owns a number of submarine cables, said it had also rerouted services last month and acknowledged that some customers had felt “an impact on their businesses in eastern and southern Africa.” According to the newspaper report, the company expressed “optimism” that the cable repairs would take place during the second quarter.
Orange, which uses but does not own the damaged cables in the Red Sea, told the Financial Times it was taking additional safety precautions. However, the French operator, as well as AT&T and Tata Communications, told the paper that they were able to reroute traffic in the event of problems.
Vulnerability of submarine cables
Since the sabotage of the Baltic Sea gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2, the vulnerability of submarine cables has become more widely known. Experts argue about how they can be better protected. The Red Sea, in turn, is a key route for the transmission of Internet traffic between the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe via submarine cables, over which 99 percent of intercontinental data traffic passes, as the Financial Times writes.
Damage to the cables also occurs again and again due to dragging anchors and the activities of fishing trawlers. Keri Gilder, chief executive of digital infrastructure company Colt Technology Services, told the Financial Times her company had previously had to quickly migrate data from one cable to another because it was damaged by fishing boats. While Colt has not yet had to reroute traffic in the Red Sea, Gilder said the route was “very congested” and she was not surprised that cables had been cut because the affected route was relatively narrow and flat.
Experts interviewed by the Financial Times also said that if internet traffic is rerouted over longer distances, the quality of video traffic, financial trading and cloud applications will be affected because of the additional latency.
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