Cut Cable Conspiracy - The Effect
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First of all, the cuts off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt of the Flag and SEA-ME-WE 4 cables affected around 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, 6 million in Egypt, and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia. In the UAE, 1.7 million users of the Internet were affected, while Qatar and Bahrain were influenced by the breakages on a relative scale, although their numbers are yet to be determined. Voice calls, corporate data, and video traffic were all affected, with Internet data taking the biggest hit.
Repairs have already begun on the breakages with the most severely damaged expected to take several days and possibly up to weeks to get transmission back up to previous levels. According to betanews.com, "The work requires a team of approximately 50 technicians, navigation experts, and cable engineers to be on site for approximately one week per break." As in the Qatar break, the others have started rerouting their traffic to other cables. This does keep them connected, albeit with limited capacity.
If you are one of those who is extremely keen on detail, this site offers an in-depth look at the losses suffered by the countries hit hardest by the cable breakages. According to the site, they take very simple ping echo measurements. In most countries, the loss (decrease in signal) ranged around the 10% mark with India going as high as 50% and others going as low as 4-5%.
At this range, any interactive activities like telnet, X windows, or video conferencing can experience delays of up to 4 seconds or more, making important business interactions anywhere from irritating to impossible. Just imagine: you're talking to your mail order bride via video conference, she's about to tell you the one thing that may make or break a perfect relationship, and the connection fails. Argh! She could have been the one! Now you'll have to either take your chances with a possible psychopath, or turn her down and spend the rest of your life with a blow-up doll.
Don't fret though. At least for now you can go on to the last part of this article and learn about all the interesting conspiracy theories that have arisen from the minds of paranoid nerds all over the world.
Next: The Conspiracy >>
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