With huge portions of the Middle East, Asia, India and North Africa crippled by Internet failure, one wonders how a single, undersea cable — running between Egypt and Italy — could be relied on to carry this kind of critical infrastructure load? And how might a "boat's anchor" have caused this problem — as Egypt's Ministry of Communications wants you to believe? From CNN:

There were contradictory reports on the real cause behind the disruption, but Du, a state-owned Dubai telecom provider, attributed it to an undersea cable cut between Alexandria, Egypt and Palermo, Italy. 

An official at Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed that a boat's anchor may have caused the problems, although this was unconfirmed, AP reported. He added that it might take up to a week to repair the fault. 

CNN got a hold of a Du Company internal memo, one where executives call the situation "critical." Du Dubai's technicians are unable to say when services would be restored. According to its website, Du Dubai Telecommunications is worth $2.2 billion and is part owned by one of the princes of Dubai. Now taken down by a anchor. Humm.

CNN Arabic is reporting that Emirates Airlines says the Internet outage is not affecting their flight schedules. 

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