The Layalina Review
VOL. V NO. 1, January 02-January 15, 2009 According to the Egyptian communication ministry, three internet cables were cut off the coast of Sicily, notes the Associated Pressin another article. Yemen, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates were among the countries reporting widespread outages, continues the news site. Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram surmised that millions of people across the region lost access to the internet and international phone calls had to be rerouted. While the cause of the break remains unknown, some seismic activity was reported near Malta before the cut was detected, adds Al-Ahram. This incident was the second large-scale internet outage in the region this year, states AP. Undersea cables were also damaged in January, causing outages across the Middle East. Egypt in particular suffered prolonged outages both in January and last week, notes Akil Bashir, chairman of Telecom Egypt. While cuts in undersea cables are not rare, two major incidents in one year are certainly cause for concern, adds Bashir. The massive internet outage earlier this year led many in the Middle East and across the blogosphere to ponder conspiracy theories (See PR_IV.4: Conspiracy Theories Surround MENA Internet Outage ). For instance, the fact that January’s internet blackouts occurred in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan and India, but not in Israel and Iraq was a source of suspicion. In a similar vein, some bloggers across the MENA suggested at the time that the internet blackout was orchestrated by neo-conservatives bent on controlling terrorist propaganda in Iraq. Whatever the cause, January’s outage and the most recent incident "highlighted the fragility of international communications," argues Al-Ahram. |
Related Stories Conspiracy Theories Surround MENA Internet Outage Recent Issues Vol. V No.3: 01/02-01/15, 2009 Vol. V No.2: 01/02-01/15, 2009 Vol. V No.1: 12/19-01/01, 2009
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