Internet slowdown: Red Sea cables could take months to fix, says expert

As several UAE residents struggled with internet disruptions for a third day after cables under the Red Sea were cut, experts say the incident could take several weeks, if not months to be fixed.

- Nasreen Abdulla

“Worldwide, there are only three or four companies that can fix such a cable,” said Yasser Saied, consulting systems engineer at cybersecurity company Palo Alto. “To fix such a cable, you need very high technology as they are buried deep under the ocean. You need special fibre divers who can go to the depths of the ocean. They will need to find exactly where the cut occurred and then fix it. So it is not easy an easy operation and could take months.”

However, according to him, there is a silver lining — replacing the damaged cable with a new one would ensure longevity. “The issue with fibre cables is that they can be degraded by nature,” he said. “Such incidents occur every five to 10 years. Nowadays we have better cable materials. So the new cables will be resistant to any decay or destruction for a longer period.”