By James Stavridis (Bloomberg Opinion) -- As the West considers the threat posed by China’s naval ambitions, there is a natural tendency to place overarching attention on the South China Sea. This is understandable: Consolidating it would provide Beijing with a huge windfall of oil and natural gas, and a potential chokehold over up to 40 percent of the world’s shipping. But … [Read more...]
Ship’s Anchor Suspected for Tonga’s Internet Blackout
By Tom Westbrook SYDNEY, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The South Pacific nation of Tonga has been all but cut off from the internet this week after an undersea cable connecting the archipelago to the wider world was severed twice on Sunday, throwing communications across the tiny and isolated country into chaos. The outage, which the cable's owner said may have been caused by a ship's … [Read more...]
Britain Says West Must Defend Undersea Cables from Russian Navy
LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Britain and its NATO allies must defend deep sea cables against a potentially catastrophic attack by the Russia navy that could disrupt trillions of dollars in financial transactions, the head of Britain's armed forces warned. The cables which crisscross the world's oceans and seas carry 95 percent of communications and over $10 trillion in daily … [Read more...]
MSC Containership Drags Anchor, Causing Internet Blackout in Somalia -Reports
Somali authorities have detained an MSC containership alleging that the vessel dragged anchor and cut an undersea fibre optic cable supplying internet to much of the country, according to reports. Somalia has been suffering from an internet blackout since June 24 when the MSC Alice allegedly dragged anchor outside Mogadishu port, severing undersea fibre optic … [Read more...]
Prelude and Ichthys Projects to Gain 2000km Optical Fiber Link to Shore
Ichthys LNG and Prelude FLNG, major capital projects currently under development by INPEX and Shell, respectively, have announced plans to invest in a subsea optical fiber cable system to provide a high-speed data and voice communications conduit for the two facilities linking them to shore from Australia's Browse basin. Winning the contract to build, own and operate the … [Read more...]