As of March 7, several organizations have confirmed that at least four Asia-Europe "communication cables" through the Red Sea have been sabotaged, directly affecting 25% of the data traffic between Asia and Europe. The news was first published by the Israeli financial daily Globes, which insisted that it was Yemen's Houthis who had sabotaged the undersea fiber optic cables.

Is the cut cable or fiber optic cable?

Although there are many reports that it was "cables" that were cut by the Houthis, there is a difference between cables and fiber optic cables.

Submarine power cables are primarily used for data and communications transmission. They use fiber optic technology to transmit large amounts of data, including Internet, telephone, and television signals.

Submarine cables, on the other hand, are typically used to transmit electricity. These cables can connect power stations and land-based grids far from land, or connect grids in different countries and regions to support the exchange of electricity.

But in any case, ZMS believes that submarine and fiber optic cables occupy an equally important place in the development of global communications.

Was it the cable that was destroyed or the fiber-optic cable? This is mainly due to the ambiguity brought about by the media translation, the Israeli media reported that "the Houthis cut the communication cables", and the communication cables include fiber-optic cables and other types of cables, so in fact, it is the undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea area that have been damaged.

One of the damaged fiber optic cables was built under the leadership of China Unicom

HGC Global Communications (formerly known as Hutchison Global Communications), the Hong Kong-based telecommunications company that owns the four cables cut by the Houthis, stated on March 4 that four of the 15 cables under the Red Sea include the Asia-Africa-Europe 1, the Europe India Gateway, the Africa Submarine Optical Cable (SEACOM), and the Asia-Africa-Europe 1 cable connecting Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (Asia-Africa-Europe 1), the Europe India Gateway (the Europe India Gateway), the African submarine fiber optic cable (SEACOM), and connecting Oman, Allianz, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia's TGN-Gulf fiber optic cable, was cut off in a recent accident. It is estimated that 25% of the data traffic between Asia, Europe, and the Middle East has been affected. data traffic between Asia, Europe, and the Middle East will be affected.

The other affected fiber optic cables are operated by India's Tata, Qatar Telecom (Ooredoo), India's Bharti Airtel, and Telecom Egypt. Still, these companies have not yet commented on or confirmed the reported damage or disruption.

Notably, the cable that was damaged was the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 submarine cable system (AAE-1), which was commercially launched in 2017 and connects from Hong Kong, China to France. This submarine cable was initiated and led by China Unicom in 2012. China Unicom has not yet issued a news release on the operation of AAE-1.

Are the cut cables linked to the Houthis?

As readers will know from previous ZMS articles, the severance of fiber optic cables, a vital communication tool, will have numerous indelible effects around the globe. 

So did the Houthis cut the cable "in a fit of pique"? And what did the Houthis achieve by doing so?

In the past, damaged cables have caused Internet service outages, but "most companies that rely on them have alternative routes," Lockston said.

Globe Wide then Telecom said that important traffic through the Red Sea had been rerouted.

Previously, the Israeli media insisted that the Houthis were responsible, and a few weeks before the accident, the Yemeni government had warned the Houthis that they might target the fiber optic cables. In response, the Houthis also issued a public statement on December 26 last year to clarify that this is a rumor. At that time, the Houthis said that the Red Sea undersea fiber optic cables, which serve the countries of the region, including Yemen, have always been one of their key support facilities, and that they were keen to do their best to protect the cables from dangers, and had no reason to take the initiative to destroy these facilities.

It is true, however, that some Houthis had previously made threats on social media about underwater fiber optic cables in the Red Sea.

However, after the damage to the four undersea cables, the Houthis repeatedly denied the allegation and reiterated that they had not planned the operation. The Houthis also attributed the damage to British and U.S. forces operating in the Red Sea region.

According to Wilson Jones, a defense analyst at GlobalData, "Yemen has a disproportionately high number of international submarine Internet cables, particularly on the west coast where the Houthis have the greatest support." He said, "If the Houthis are determined to target these cables, it will be very difficult to stop them. A cable cut anywhere will affect data transmission everywhere. Since these cables are critical to modern internet and digital financial transactions, the impact of the damage could be enormous. "

A Pentagon official confirmed to CBS that undersea telecom cables in the Red Sea had been severed and that the U.S. was still trying to determine whether they had been deliberately cut or hooked by a ship's anchor.

The "real culprit" of the cable cut may be as confusing as the Nord Stream pipeline explosion, and it will be difficult to determine. Judging from the report posted by The Register, the parties involved in operating these undersea fiber optic cables, at least for the time being, have not made it clear that the saboteurs were Yemen's Houthis.

The Little Red Sea Converges 17% of the World's Internet Traffic

Underwater fiber optic cables are essential to keep the global internet flowing, with 90% of the world's data transfer passing through undersea cables, many of which are consequently funded by internet giants such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta. In the event of damage to the cables, there could be widespread disruption to the global internet, which could even hit several industries, including communications and finance, hard.

The Red Sea is one of the three most important fiber optic cable intersections in the world. It is estimated that 17 percent of global Internet traffic passes through underwater fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea, with some 80 percent of the traffic from Asia to Western countries being transmitted through these cables. This incident also highlights the vulnerability of global communications at critical nodes.

Some media reports suggest that the Houthis themselves would have been affected by the damage to the fiber optic cables. Because the Houthis control Yemen's main Internet communications provider, local users have repeatedly reported crashes in Internet service recently.

Fortunately, as of now, the damage to the underwater fiber optic cable in the Red Sea has not had a noticeable impact on global communications.

HGC said it had taken measures to mitigate the disruption caused to customers by distributing the blocked traffic in three directions, one northbound, from Hong Kong to Europe via mainland China; one eastbound, from the US around to Europe; and traffic transmitted westward spread across the remaining 11 Red Sea cables.

Despite this, it is uncertain when 25% of the data traffic between Asia and Europe will be restored, which inevitably poses a greater risk to the smooth flow of subsequent communications.

For example, Seacom, the African submarine cable operator that owns one of the severed cables, has indicated that it will be at least a month before repairs to the submarine cables can begin, in part because of the need to apply for licenses from both the Government of Yemen and the Yemeni Houthis.