Capacity Watch

Submarine networks have demonstrated its importance for global communications, especially global internet which requires huge capacity. On the other hand, the whole submarine networks are still quite vulnerable, though there is increasing enhancement on diversity, redundancy and protection. Submarine cable cut occurs from time to time arround the world. Trawl fishing, vessel anchoring, nature disaster such as earthquake, typhoon and landslide are the main threats to the submarine networks.

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On Tuesday December 26, 2006 at 12:25 UTC (20:25 local time), a maganitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the southwest coast of Taiwan, approximately 22.8 km west southwest of Hengchun, Pingtung County, Taiwan (the 2006 Hengchun/Taiwan earthquake). Eight submarine cables were cut after the earthquake and its aftershocks, catastrophically disrupted Internet services in Asia, affecting many Asian countries. Financial transactions, particularly in the foreign exchange market were seriously affected as well. The 2006 Taiwan Earthquak renderred significant impacts on submarine networks.

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In January-February 2008, multiple submarine cable cuts occured in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean regions. The cable cuts caused internet disruptions and slowdowns, affecting at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia. The cable cuts  called into doubt the safety of the undersea portion of the Internet cable system.

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On December 19, 2008, Friday, SEA-ME-WE 3 (SMW3), SEA-ME-WE 4(SMW4) and FLAG FEA undersea cable cuts occured at 7:28 a.m., 7:33 a.m. and 8:06 a.m. respectively.  The undersea cables were cut in the region where they run under the sea between Egypt and Italy. Seabone also went out Thursday evening in the same region. The undersea cables carry an estimated 90 percent of all data traffic between Europe and the Middle East.

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2011 March 11 05:46:23 UTC, A magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan (modified to magnitude 9.0 later), at 38.322°N, 142.369°E and 373 km (231 miles) NE of TOKYO. The earthquake and its aftershocks and the tsunami resulted in multiple submarine cable cuts that threatening much of the intra-Asia and trans-Pacific telecommunications.

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