Three undersea cables from France Telecom have been broken

The operator France Telecom announced Friday he was the victim of a triple incident on its submarine cable trans-oceanic Me WE3 Sea, Sea Me WE4 and FLAG, linking Europe with Asia through the Mediterranean Sea.

Deployed from the 19th century, a few years after the invention of the telegraph, these cables that line the funds of the seas and oceans are cheaper than satellites and provide the bulk of telecommunications (voice and data) between continents.

"The cut, whose causes remain unclear, is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on segments linking Sicily to Egypt. "Said the operator who immediately dispatched a ship-Cable, the" Raymond Croze, to understand the origin of this triple incident and repair the three cables.

Pending repairs, estimated at the latest by 31 December, traffic to the Middle East and the Indian Ocean should be disrupted. The professional traffic to Asia-Pacific should be insured against moving around the world ... in the other direction pass it by the United States, through other cables posed to the funds of the Atlantic Ocean.