Quartz: Somalia is in its third week of an internet blackout and it’s hurting grassroots aid relief efforts
The internet has been down in Somalia since June 24, when an anchor from a Swiss-owned ship, MSC Alice, cut the single fibre cable that links Somalia to the rest of the world.
The fallout has been immense, with the government declaring that the country is losing $10 million a day in business.
Somalia already has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world with penetration rates believed to be under 2%, according to the World Bank but local groups have used the platform to organize relief efforts on the ground particularly with remote areas. The most recent update from the government is that the Internet will be not be fixed until 25 July.
Read more ....
More News On Somalia's Internet Blackout
Accidental Internet cut-off hits Somalia hard -- Channel News Asia
Somalia detains ship that caused internet outage, demands compensation -- Africa News
Somalia internet outage is 'major disaster' -- BBC
Somalia investigates ongoing Internet outage -- Anadolu Agency
6 comments:
" due to the damage caused by the Panama-flagged MSC Alice after it dragged its anchor through the main fibre optic cable at Mogadishu port on June 24, 2017."
http://www.maritimeherald.com/2017/somalia-suffers-internet-loss-ship-cuts-cable/
Something is wrong here.
I guess ship should not put down anchors while in port or on the hook.
Maybe there is a Ramadan angle here.
Ramadan May 27 - June 24.
Good bet this is due to Ramadan.
I wonder why the Germans never cut the undersea cables to North America during WW2? Anyone Know?
TWN
That is a damn good question.
You would need to have a ship like the "Great Eastern".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable
I do not think a U-boat could be designed to carry as much cable as needed to frag the abyssal plain.
A surface ship would not last long.
Dragging the sea floor near Ireland might work for a U-boat, but the British might find and report such a break in weeks.
If such a break were months it might be significant. Comms would have to be via plane or wireless. Wireless might enable Germans to intercept and decrypt.
I thought James Burke wrote a book about laying the transatlantic cable, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe he didn't, but his work is interesting nonetheless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_(science_historian)
"The Day the Universe Changed"
"Connections"
I remember reading a book that started with the Atlantic Cable and described laying it in detail and the 2nd half of the book went onto electronic, computers, satellites.
http://atlantic-cable.com//Books/Russell/
There is a Ramadan angle.
Dock workers do not work well when their sleep cycle is disrupted and they fast during the day.
You too can rent a cabin on a cargo ship. While you might not get norovisu or some other plague, you could wait 2 or 3 weeks on the hook waiting for a berth at a pier during Ramadan
Cargo operations slow to a crawl during Ramadan.
It is simples.
The longer a ship is on the hook waiting for a berth, the longer it is dragging its anchor right outside of port.
Port authorities will have authorized anchorages assigned. But this is Somalia and the government has been on the ropes since Siad Barre fell from power in 1991.
Not what I was looking for, but interesting
https://www.passagemaker.com/technical/on-the-hook-anchor-math-and-management-part-1?_escaped_fragment_=
https://www.passagemaker.com/technical/on-the-hook-anchor-math-and-management-part-2
Here are the anchorage rules for the Port of San Diego
https://www.portofsandiego.org/maritime/check-port-and-harbor-conditions/426-anchorages.html
http://ports.com/somalia/port-of-mogadishu/
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ports/23345/Somalia_port:MOGADISHU%20ANCH
Pilots are required.
This is really good.
http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/portCall/SOM_Port_of_Mogadishu_2170.php
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