Is the internet going down? Undersea sub-cables have just broken...

Breaking news: something's happening to the internet, right now. We're just not quite sure what.

Interoute, the internet networks company, reports that three of the four internet sub-cables that run from Asia to North America have been damaged.

These carry more than 75 per cent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe and America. It's hard to gather what this actually means - is it that the internet is down or (more likely) significantly slower than usual between the Middle East and America? (If you're reading this, let's face it, the internet has not shut down altogether)

But, according to the company, there is a domino effect taking place. Interoute says it is:

hearing that offices have lost their entire private network connectivity. As a result, users are unable to do their daily job over the internet and are turning to their mobile phones to communicate across the globe. This is having a knock on effect on the domestic voice networks, which are getting a surge of calls needing to be routed internationally. These calls need to be routed onto international gateways that pass voice traffic in longer directions around the world to avoid the cable breaks – causing more quality issues and risk more call failures, in turn causing more calls to be placed and increasing the pressure on local voice networks.

What (I think) this means is that companies' private internet services have gone down. So, if they can get access, they have had to go on the public internet and mobile phones, like the rest of us average joes, to get their work done. That results in more strain on mobile phone networks, which means more phone calls go down and the internet becomes slower.

Here's the big problem right now:

Finance companies [are] looking to settle trades on European and American exchanges. This cable outage means there is no real-time access to, for example, trading ticker services. This means branch offices are compromised when trying to place trades. As private networks are being affected, these organisations are forced to rely on public internet services that may have more latency and may not update as quickly. The loss of time even precious seconds is hugely important to trading exchanges. These public internet services are now struggling to cope with peak in demand – leading to increased latency, and further compromising the integrity of the trading data.

I'm told that these major sub-sea cables break once a year. So companies have developed a fall-back plan. If one sub-sea cable is out, traffic is re-routed onto a second cable. In theory, a dual break, where both cables go out at once, is incredibly rare. Prior to January this year, it had not happened before.

The problem with all of this is that it's hard to see the impact, or its significance, until something disastrous happens. So, we're keeping an eye on it and like we said, er, something's happening to the internet.

UPDATE: AP report mass outages in Egypt

UPDATE: India suffers massive internet disruption after undersea cables break

Comments

[Ryan]

The internet is indeed down. I am posting this with my mind.

[Tyler]

"But the company say what's is happening is that there is a domino effect taking place, Interoute tell me they are:"

Grammar please.

[Bill]

It's Godzilla

[wookie]

This has got to be the worst-written article I've ever read. Dude, stop torturing us with your bad writing and idiot ideas about the internet!

[kolef88]

I imagine the cable breakage was caused by undersea earth tremors or quakes or by giant aquatic animals.
-- Dr. Moreau

[Murad Ahmed]

For all those who are interested, this blog was written in an awful rush. It has been adjusted repeatedly since. Sorry.

[TDPro]

Is someone doing this deliberately or is someone to cheap to fix these and/or do maintenance?

[willie b]

Oh yeah, that's just great-some other mega-disaster to worry about. Let's not forget the peaceful religion of islam just waiting in the wings to help move the world forward?

[Herb]

I am currently in the Middle East and we have a 95% work stop state due to this outage. I cannot make any cell calls to the US and we are unable to keep our VPN connection up to the US. I will be surprised if this message even gets posted. This is BIG!

[JOJOJO]

What caused (causes) the breaks?

[David]

This blog is so full of rubbish, I suggest you take it down and start again.

[Reality Check]

"For all those who are interested, this blog was written in an awful rush. It has been adjusted repeatedly since. Sorry."

And you still have this many errors?

I take it English is not your first, second or third language?

[Rodger]

I'm surprised that some of you Obama-Clinton-Castro-Chavez-Marx worshippers haven't tried to blame this on President Bush....

[texster]

Good riddance! Maybe it will lead to the end of somali scams, chinese hacking and russian spam. What a loss that would be! Frankly I don't know why though uncivilized SOB's are even connected to the internet.

[John]

The cables in this instance are located in the Mediterranean Sea, not between Asia and North America.

[WAR HAWK]

...the bombing starts in fifteen minutes. Goodbye Iran.

[TinfoilHat]

A similar thing happened last year when several cables mysteriously all went at the same time. Do a google search and you will find it. A magazine called "The Week" had a blurb about the incident. Point is there are alot of tin foil hat conspiracy people that feel it is all connected. Have fun.

[Joe the Plumber]

This never would have happened if McCain was elected.

[WAR HAWK]

...the bombing starts in fifteen minutes. Goodbye Iran.

[Jdub]

The internet is a WANT! It is not a need and that is the problem.

All humans on earth are falling into the American trap of not being able to discern wants from needs. I hope something happens to wake people up. We need good air, water, and food. Then we need to love our neighbors. THEN and ONLY THEN, do we need cars, microwaves, and maybe a camera-computer-easy bake oven phone.....then internet. Until then, do you notice how the air, water, food, love thing is failing?

[Thomas]

Did you try rebooting?

[AnthonyF.]

How can this be verified?

[Akmed]

Does anyone know specifically which cables have failed? Should I be dumping at&t stock? Are the days of cheap long distance rates over.

Three of four cables failing at the same time smells like a conspiracy. Does anyone know where Dick Cheney was at the time?

[Samarah]

OMG!! Does this mean I wont be able to get into Openlife to my Castle?? I wont be able to work on my cave or my prim hair? Will my scripts still work afterwards? I wont even be able to TP to my friends region or send IMs to anyone??? Goodbye World!!!

[Retardican]

I thinks it is the obamas adminstriaghtshen that is involved. Rush said this wuld happening and it is.