Sicily to Egypt undersea cable disruption

Fri Feb 1 23:07:16 UTC 2008

Hi Steve, 

TransAtlantic cables average three repairs a year. That's the industry average. So given 7 high capacity cable systems, that's 21 repairs a year. 

Now, not all damaged cables go out of service. In fact, most stay in service until the repair begins. 

But the public rarely hears about a TransAtlantic cable going dark. Yet it does happen quite regularly in the business. 

Why? Because there are seven very high capacity (multi-terabit) systems to route traffic across! There is no need to announce to the public that a cable been cut. 

That is not the case in the Midterranean or the Persian Gulf. 

You have only a few systems (relatively low capacity) serving a huge population. In fact, I suspect Flag is probably the sole provider for many of these countries. 

So yes, when the only guy in town falls down, it's going to be noticed. 

That's the real answer. 

Regards, 

Roderick S. Beck
Director of European Sales
Hibernia Atlantic
1, Passage du Chantier, 75012 Paris
http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com
Wireless: 1-212-444-8829. 
Landline: 33-1-4346-3209.
French Wireless: 33-6-14-33-48-97.
AOL Messenger: GlobalBandwidth
rod.beck at hiberniaatlantic.com
rodbeck at erols.com
``Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.'' Albert Einstein. 

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