Internet disruptions across South Asia, Middle East as Red sea cable damage hit global traffic

Srinagar, Sept 08: Internet users across India, Pakistan, and parts of the Middle East experienced major disruptions after subsea cable systems in the Red Sea were damaged, internet observatory NetBlocks reported. The Red Sea region is a major hub for undersea fibre-optic cables that carry a significant portion of global internet traffic.

According to Reuters, the outage also affected the United Arab Emirates, where users of Etisalat and Du faced difficulties accessing online services. NetBlocks traced the disruption to cable failures near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

According to reports Microsoft confirmed that its cloud computing platform, Azure, was among the services affected by the incident. In a statement released on Saturday, Microsoft said Azure users could experience higher latency because of “multiple undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea.”
To reduce the impact of the outage, Microsoft has rerouted traffic through alternative paths outside the Middle East, Reuters reported.

The company clarified that while users may experience delays in internet traffic passing through the region, its global services remain unaffected. “We do expect higher latency on some traffic that previously traversed the Middle East. Network traffic that does not pass through the region is not impacted,” Microsoft said.

The incident underscores the fragility of global digital infrastructure that relies heavily on undersea cables.