The internet cables submarine, are they really safe ?

At the time when internet has become a major challenge of the economy, but also strategic, it is legitimate to question the safety of optical submarine cables which spreads over 95% of Internet traffic and data exchange in the world.

Because in recent years, many countries and economies particularly in Africa and Asia, have suffered repeated outages or failures of their Internet network caused by the disruption of internet submarine cables. But before entering the heart of the subject, let's understand why we use internet cables telecommunications sailors, and see if there are no other alternatives such as satellite.

Why a network of telecommunications cables submarines ?

Use for many years, satellite data communication can connect by radio, two points separated by several thousand kilometers. The advantage of satellite network compared to other technologies, it's because it covers vast areas. However, it suffers from limited performance than terrestrial technologies, in particular wired (high latency, limited and shared flows), and a high cost to the user. It may be a solution in remote areas or without a broadband connection or fiber optic, but will fail to meet the current needs with broadband connection. Which explains the option for the optical cable.

But to connect the whole earth with the cable network, the communications network operators use the oceans to draw underwater roads which aims to host optical cables. The oceans and seas and ensure the delivery of an optical submarine cable network connected across the continent, including the islands. With the explosion of Internet demand, fiber optic cables, the first deployments dating back more than 20 years, gradually invaded marine basements. It's estimated that over one million kilometers, the extent of these cables is 25 laps of the Earth, according to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), an international association that deals with the protection of these cables. The growth of submarine networks is only the consequence of strong telecommunications needs, largely boosted by the globalization of the economy and development of Emerging economies.

All continents are now interconnected and major operations are underway to strengthen and increase the possibilities and potential connection to high-speed broadband in order to open up remote populations, reducing the digital divide - particularly in Africa - and offsetting the different cuts and failures observed in recent years.

The different waves of cuts or failures of the submarine cable system and their negative consequences on the economy.

Even if there are no global statistics, it is estimated at several billion dollars, the economic losses due to the different failures optic cable network submarines. These causes are multiple. Submarine cables can be turned off by fishing trawlers, a collision with the anchor of a ship, seismic movements, underwater avalanches even by bites or marine animals such clashes sharks and whales . In times of war, in the past, the cables (telephone and telegraph) were cut by enemy troops. This was the case during the first and second world war.

Back of facts !

• The first seismic cuts internet submarine cables intervened in May 2003 following the earthquake in Boumerdes, Algeria. A major disturbances occurred in the modern telecommunications system was in December 2006 when a 7.1 magnitude earthquake had broken 9 submarine cables between Taiwan and the Philippines leading the momentary interruption of connections between South Asia -Is and the rest of the world. It took 49 days for the connections to work again at full capacity.

• In 2005, Pakistan was hit by the failure of a submarine cable. The cable was damaged and had power failures. Consequences, the country is paralyzed, airlines and financial institutions have been severely affected. The Commercial Director of the company Air Blue, Nasir Ali, speaks of "total disaster" because the booking system of the ticket by Internet collapsed. Satellite backup connections were too slow to satisfy everyone.

• In 2007, are Vietnamese fishermen who were appointed for putting users of their country in the blackout. It was a case of cable theft.
  In early 2008, the Egyptian and Indian Internet users have experienced a ruptured undersea cable linking Europe to Asia. Less than a week later, several submarine cables were broken plunging more than 84 million Internet users in the galley. According to AT & T, there was a cut of the cable causing an interruption of the data flow, causing a series of slowdowns in several states. Thus, the Egyptian stock market was repeatedly plunged into darkness without counting the frustrations the inability of firms to route thousands of emails. Ship anchors were held accountable.

• In July 2009, the breakdown of the SAT-3 cable linking Europe to South Africa had caused difficulties connecting to Benin, Niger, Togo and Nigeria, thus penalizing a section of economic activity.

From 2003 to today, several failures of internet submarine cables were recorded, paralyzing entire sectors of the economy based telephony (call centers in India and North Africa), the internet (banks, airlines, stock exchange, companies) creating colossal shortfalls. Faced with these multiple inconveniences to repetitive trend, states must adopt effective measures, sustainable and very strict.

What are the means to fight against these ruptures ?

To eradicate this recurring phenomenon, awareness and geo location on the presence of these cables is vital. We need a global awareness campaign of merchant ships and fishing traffic areas of submarine cables. If despite awareness campaigns, ships were to cut the cables, they will be judged solely responsible for all costs related to the repair, but also responsible for the financial and moral damage caused to thousands of Internet users and businesses. It will take a regional or international legislation on the issue. The International Association Cable Protection Commitee (ICPC) whose goal is to protect submarine cables, will play a major role in these negotiations. For now, the cable ships are not prepared to be unemployed.

As regards the sabotage, only thorough investigations can distinguish between an accidental or deliberate act. One can also ask why these recurring failures in Africa and Asia and not in other parts of the world ...