UAE internet slowdown: Red Sea cables could take months to fix, says expert
Residents have been struggling with disruptions and delays for three days
Tue 9 Sept 2025
By: Nasreen Abdulla
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/intern ... sea-cables
Photo: KT File
As several UAE residents struggled with internet disruptions for a third day after cables under the Red Sea were cut, experts say the incident could take several weeks, if not months to be fixed.
said Yasser Saied, Consulting Systems Engineer at cybersecurity company Palo Alto.Worldwide, there are only three or four companies that can fix such a cable,
To fix such a cable, you need very high technology as they are buried deep under the ocean. You need special fibre divers who can go to the depths of the ocean. They will need to find exactly where the cut occurred and then fix it. So it is not easy an easy operation and could take months.
However, according to him, there is a silver lining — replacing the damaged cable with a new one would ensure longevity.
he said.The issue with fibre cables is that they can be degraded by nature,
Internet disruptions continueSuch incidents occur every five to ten years. Nowadays we have better cable materials. So the new cables will be resistant to any decay or destruction for a longer period.
Meanwhile, some UAE residents reported facing internet and data disruptions.
said Urmi K.I was on my way to a location on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi and my Google Maps wouldn’t load,
Another UAE resident, who did not wish to be named, shared that she was unable to access her mobile data while at a work event.What should have taken me 1.5 hours ended up taking more than 2.5 hours. It was very frustrating.
she said.Luckily, wifi was available at the location,
On September 7, telecom operator Du had posted on its social media platforms warning its customers that they may experience “some slowness” in its data services due to the cable cut.Otherwise I would have been unable to do my work.
it wrote.Our technical teams are working with international providers to resolve the issue. We will keep you updated with the latest developments,
E& UAE had also posted a similar message on its social media channels.
Ensure resilience
The reason for the cable cut remains under investigation but according to experts, there were several reasons how the disruption could have occurred.
said Swapnendu M., Solutons Architect at Cisco.What we have seen in the past is that ships do anchorage and they sometimes damage the submarine cables by hitting them,
He said this incident highlighted the importance of cables as a “critical infrastructure” for countries and continents.Sometimes, it is related to a natural disaster inside the sea. Rarely, it can be a malicious incident, as was seen in the past between Russia and Ukraine where we saw some such disruptions near Norway.
he said.The same set of cables are used by multiple countries,
However, he added that other newer technologies like satellite connectivity are not enough to make up for undersea cables.So, the dependency is even more. This specific route is very heavy because it connects to Europe. But there are alternate paths already available. To ensure internet resilience, countries should have sufficient capacity through the alternate path, which is the Singapore-India route.
he said.Satellites today haven't reached that level yet,
FlexibilityThey can provide some kind of redundancy as a failover when physical path is not there. But when we talk about low latency or ultra low latency and these things, very high bandwidth in terabits, submarine cables is what we rely on.
One expert said the incident highlighted how companies should factor in change when designing solutions.
said Chris Royles, EMEA Field CTO, Cloudera.They need to consider change as the constant, build it in, value flexibility and agility so that they don't develop a status quo,
He added that the disruption should help focus thinking on cloud consolidation risk and highlight the importance of understanding that things will change beyond control.This can significantly benefit organisations during times of change, or stressed conditions such as cloud, network and service outages.
he said.These can be planned for and mitigated against. It is difficult to balance up-front investment against future risks,
