Undersea cable cuts in Red Sea slow internet across Asia and Middle East amid Houthi tensions

Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea degraded internet service across parts of Asia and the Middle East, network monitors and major technology firms reported Sunday, though the cause of the damage was not immediately clear.

Microsoft said on its status website that users in the Middle East "may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea," adding that internet traffic that does not transit the region was not affected. NetBlocks, which tracks online connectivity worldwide, said a "series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries," naming outages affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and reporting impacts in India and Pakistan.

Telecommunications companies and some governments reported specific disruptions. Pakistan Telecommunications Co. Ltd. said cuts had occurred, while Kuwaiti authorities reported that the FALCON GCX cable running through the Red Sea had been cut and that the damage was causing disruption in Kuwait. Users on state-owned networks Du and Etisalat in the United Arab Emirates reported slower speeds. Tata Communications, which operates the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SMW4) system, and members of the consortium that runs the India–Middle East–Western Europe (IMEWE) system did not immediately respond to requests for comment. GCX also did not respond to a request for comment. Saudi authorities did not acknowledge the disruption.

Undersea fiber-optic cables carry an overwhelming majority of international internet traffic and are a critical part of global digital infrastructure along with satellite and land-based links. Internet service providers typically maintain multiple routes and can reroute traffic when a cable fails, but rerouting can increase latency and reduce speeds for end users. Repairing a damaged subsea cable can take weeks because specialized ships and crews must locate the break and perform a delicate recovery and splice operation at sea.

Concerns about possible deliberate targeting surfaced because the damage comes amid a campaign by Yemen's Houthi rebels against shipping linked to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The rebel group has carried out repeated attacks on vessels in the region since late 2023. Yemen's internationally recognized government, based in the south and opposed to the Houthis, linked the cable cuts to the rebel campaign, with Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani saying the incidents "cannot be isolated from the series of direct attacks carried out by the Houthi militia" and urging international action to protect digital infrastructure.

The Houthis have previously denied responsibility for undersea cable damage even as analysts have warned that anchors dropped by ships, fishing gear or deliberate attacks can sever cables. In early 2024, Yemen's internationally recognized government alleged the Houthis planned attacks on undersea lines, and several cables were cut in incidents that authorities suggested could have been caused by a ship dragging an anchor after being attacked; the rebels denied those allegations. On Sunday morning, the Houthis' al-Masirah satellite channel acknowledged that cuts had occurred and cited monitoring data from NetBlocks.

The incidents add to a period of heightened maritime and regional security tensions that have affected commercial shipping and raised questions about the resilience of global communications networks. Network operators and governments typically investigate such outages to determine whether they resulted from accidents, natural causes or deliberate action. Until repairs are completed and investigations conclude, users in affected regions can expect continued slower connections and elevated latency where routing alternatives are limited.