DUBAI — Sorry, conspiracy theorists. The mystery of the curiously cut communication cables has been solved, and the culprits weren’t terrorists or covert operatives of a shadow government.Instead, internet and telecommunications outages that crippled India, Pakistan, and much of the Middle East for several weeks earlier this year seem to have been caused by ships that dropped anchor in places they weren’t supposed to be.
Last week Dubai authorities impounded MV Hounslow and MT Ann after Reliance Globalcom, which maintains the undersea cables, determined the ships accidentally had caused the cuts. The evidence seemed pretty clear to Reliance: Satellite images showed the merchant vessels dropping their anchors in prohibited areas, and the cable-repair teams found an abandoned ship’s anchor near one of the cuts.
One of the ships, owned by a Korean company, reportedly was released after paying approximately $60,000 to compensate for repairs. The second ship, which belongs to an Iraqi company, reportedly remains in custody. According to Ars Technica, that ship may be in a bit more trouble over the damage it caused and its crew may be taken to court, though it’s unclear why.
Depending upon which reports one reads, between three and nine undersea fiber-optic cables were cut in late January and early February. Because cuts in undersea cables are relatively rare, yet so many occurred so closely together in time, conspiracy theorists suggested the events might be tied to covert military operations, terrorism, or machinations on the part of Big Oil.
More creative sorts suggested mermen, Gamara, or sharks with laser beams attached to their heads were to blame. Hopefully, those folks are wearing their foil hats again.
