Comments on: Cable News

By: klynn

klynn — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:35:09 +0000

Agreed. They are suppose to reach the first cable repair location today. As you have read, the repair ships have been delayed due to the past five days of bad weather. One news wire out of the ME pointed out not only were there no ships in the area (confirmed by satellite photos before and after the cuts) of the two cables affecting Egypt the most, the weather was so bad that only an “underwater approach” could have accessed the cables at the time…

The International Herald Tribune had a very good article which noted that the US was actually quite affected by this in terms of cost because of all the outsourced customer service etc… to India. The article said many East coast firms were badly hit and that this will cost them millions…

By: Gerald

Gerald — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:19:58 +0000

I will go out on a limb and say I am positive that the US Navy is not cutting deep sea cables today. There is no reason to.

As to whether the Navy has the equipment on a utility sub to splice a cable on the bottom I will answer yes, and then of course if it could do that, then if it desired it could cut some enemy’s cable.

But it would not have to have splicing equipment to cut cables.
It would only have to drag a edged hook or something like that over the cable. That is why they are checking to see if some large boat was dragging an anchor.

We could guess more if we knew the depths of the cables where they were cut. If some new cable is having a problem, then it could be a problem with the cable design and manufacture itself.

By: Hmmm

Hmmm — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:55:29 +0000

It will be interesting to see whether we get any sort of detailed damage reports from the several repair ships once they start arriving at the cut sites and pulling the cable ends up.

By: klynn

klynn — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:36:53 +0000

BTW,

Here’s the latest confirming the fourth cable:

http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....cables.php

Many national news agents (in other countries) are now reporting that the US has a sub that specializes in executing cable cutting/cable splitter work.

Hmmmmm… Great…

By: klynn

klynn — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:10:02 +0000

BTW EW, thanks for th H/T…It made the kids smile!!!

By: Sedgequill

Sedgequill — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:14:37 +0000

Let’s borrow the watercraft, gear, and crews that do that wonderful underwater filming for TV nature programs and have them approach the vicinity of each cable break. Whatever entity, if any, blocks their approach could be placed at the top of the suspect list. Let’s see whether there are actually choke point cutthroats about.

Seriously, I wonder whether the public or private personnel who learn or know the facts will be fully able to disclose those facts.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:02:57 +0000

(lost part of my post)

The Seawolfs were reserved for Russia in the old days (my time) but now that threat has expanded to include a Russian serviced Iranian Sub Fleet, and of course the new big bad boy, China.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:58:18 +0000

I’m retired from the Navy, surface ships, so I make no claim to know all there is to know about subs.

However I can’t believe that one of the only 3 Seawolf subs that are the most potent underwater dreadnoughts in the world would be modified as it would have to be in order to do cable work at depth. Yes I know about the wasp waist and other things, but to tap a cable requires a lot more. These modifications would interfere with a Seawolf’s primary mission.

The Seawolfs were reserved for Russia in

By: JohnLopresti

JohnLopresti — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:16:28 +0000

Like many industrial sectors in France the government owns a goodly slice of Arianespace. For the venturesome, reading about a regional communications vehicle provider such as that entity might be an interesting place to begin sensing the texture of the events unfolding. Last I checked, they were serving north Africa Mediterranean rim countries with satellite launches; not sure if they do undersea, ATT being the global leader in the latter genre of outside plant deployment and repair.

By: Rayne

Rayne — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:11:54 +0000

What’s with the AT&T outages, too?

Any of you heard of a Blackberry or AT&T service user who’s been affected? I’m wondering how much of this is true and how much might be spin…