The Houthis damaged four undersea communication cables in the Red Sea between Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Djibouti in East Africa.
The cables in question were reportedly those of AAE-1, Seacom, EIG and TGN. This has caused severe disruptions in Internet connectivity between Europe and Asia, with most of the damage being felt in the Gulf States and India.
The damage to communications is significant but not critical as there are other cables running through the same region connecting Asia, Africa and Europe that were not affected. It is estimated that repairing such a large number of undersea cables could take at least eight weeks and carries Houthi risk. Telecom companies will be forced to look for companies that will agree to carry out the repair work and possibly pay them a high risk premium.
The EIG (European India Gateway) connects Southern Europe to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, UAE and India. The submarine cable was laid by Tyco-owned Alcatel-Lucent for $700 million and was the first cable to stretch from the UK to India. A consortium that includes AT&T, Saudi Telecom, Verizon and India’s Bharat Sanchar owns EIG.
TGN Atlantic was laid by Tyco International in 2001 and sold to India’s Tata Communications in 2005 for $130 million. The AAE-1 cable, which was also cut, connects East Asia to Europe via Egypt. The cable, which has a capacity of 40 terabytes per second, connects China to the West via countries in the Sino-Iranian axis, including those countries as well as Pakistan and Qatar. The Seacom cable connects Europe, Africa and India, as well as South Africa.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Monday reported that two one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were shot down in the southern Red Sea area.
