It's been a bad week for undersea telecommunications cables in the Middle East. According to the BBC, a cable snapped today that just added to the headache of the two that broke on Wednesday under the Mediterranean. Flag Telecom, the owners of the latest cable, have already deployed a repair ship, but don't expect to have the repair crew in position or a couple of days.
The cause of these breaks has not been released, but as they are all deep sea cables, it seems unlikely to be caused by humans. Whatever has happened, it has reduced the available bandwidth in the area by 75%, and caused most of the communications traffic in the area to be rerouted through other countries. The hardest hit countries thus far have been Egypt, which has lost 70% of their capacity, and India, which is down by 60%.