Repairs to Internet Cables Begin in Gulf

A repair ship began work at the site where an Internet cable was cut last week in the Persian Gulf, and a second vessel was to arrive later that day at the spot north of Egypt where two other cables were cut just two days earlier, FLAG Telecom said. The cuts have disrupted Internet services across a large swath of the Middle East and India, slowing down businesses and hampering personal Internet usage.

There has been wide speculation that the cuts were caused by ships' anchors dragged along the bottom of the sea in stormy weather. But Egypt's telecommunication ministry said Sunday no ships were registered near the location when the first cut in the cables occurred, north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria. The Egyptian statement further deepened the enigma of how the damage happened. U.K.-based FLAG Telecom said its repair ship arrived Tuesday some 35 miles north of Dubai, between the Emirates and Oman, were the company's FALCON cable was damaged Friday. Source: Associated Press