Microsoft Reports Cuts to Cables in Red Sea

‘We do expect higher latency on some traffic that previously traversed through the Middle East,’ the company stated.

An undersea fiber-optic cable is attached to a rope at Arrietara Beach near the Spanish Basque village of Sopelana on June 13, 2017. Ander Gillenea /AFP via Getty Images

Microsoft stated on Sept. 6 that cuts to multiple undersea cables in the Red Sea were causing increased latency for users of its cloud computing platform, Microsoft Azure.

The cable cuts started affecting network traffic in the Middle East “at 05:45 UTC,” the company stated in a service update.

“Network traffic is not interrupted as Microsoft has rerouted traffic through alternate network paths,” Microsoft said.

“We do expect higher latency on some traffic that previously traversed through the Middle East.

“Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted. We'll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change.”

As a result of the disruption, Azure, the world’s second-largest cloud provider after Amazon Web Services, has rerouted traffic through alternate network paths, and network traffic is not interrupted.

NetBlocks, which monitors internet access, stated that “a series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries,” including India and Pakistan. It blamed “failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.”

The South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 cable is run by Tata Communications, part of the Indian conglomerate. The India–Middle East–Western Europe cable is run by another consortium overseen by Alcatel-Lucent. Neither firm responded immediately to requests for comment.

Pakistan Telecommunication Co. stated in a post on X that the submarine cable in Saudi Arabian waters near Jeddah had been cut, resulting in “service degradation during peak hours” for internet users in Pakistan.

“Our international partners are working on priority to resolve the issue, while our local teams are actively arranging alternative bandwidth to minimize the impact,” the company stated.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has yet to comment on the reports. In the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, internet users on the country’s state-owned Du and Etisalat networks complained of slower internet speeds. The government did not immediately acknowledge the disruption.

Undersea cables can be cut by anchors dropped from ships but can also be targeted in attacks. Experts told the Associated Press on Sept. 7 that it was not immediately clear what caused the incident.

There has been concern about Yemen’s Houthi terrorist group targeting cables in the Red Sea, but the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in the past.

It can take weeks for repairs to be made, as a ship and crew must position themselves over the damaged cable.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.