Microsoft has confirmed that multiple subsea fiber optic cables in the Red Sea suffered simultaneous cuts on Saturday, disrupting global internet and communications traffic. The outage has led to higher latency and congestion, particularly affecting Azure cloud users with data flows between the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
In a service health update, Microsoft said: “Azure users may experience increased disruptions when traffic from the Middle East originates in or terminates in Asia or Europe.” The company added that connectivity remains available, but rerouting traffic has resulted in slower performance on key routes.
The cause of the cuts was not immediately disclosed. Repairs to undersea cables can take significant time due to logistical challenges in deep-sea environments. “Undersea fiber cuts can take time to repair. We will continuously monitor, rebalance, and optimise routing to reduce customer impact in the meantime. We’ll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change,” Microsoft stated.
The Red Sea corridor is one of the world’s most critical internet backbones, with dozens of subsea cables connecting Asia and Europe through Egypt. Industry experts warn that multiple simultaneous cuts highlight the vulnerability of global digital infrastructure to regional disruptions.
–Input WAM
