Massive net disruption in Mid-East & Asia
It seems that, thanks to an undersea cable in the Med being cut, there's massive internet disruption across the Middle East and South-East Asia.
According to the Beeb, who have helpfully collated reports from Reuters and the AP, Egypt has lost 70 percent of its national network and the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are also reporting problems. India is also reportedly 60 percent down.
Somehow I anticipate we'll be providing further coverage as the story progresses...
UPDATE (10am, Thursday):
OK, so - for what it's worth - the cable was running between Alexandria in Egypt and Palermo on Sicily. It is run by FLAG Telecom and SEA-ME-WE 4. It is possible that this was all caused by a ship's anchor (anchors oy vey - I'll get my coat)...
Insofar as this affects the UK, the biggest hit companies will be those who've outsourced to the affected regions. Of course, this is bad for those companies - but (in a silver lining kinda way) it's great news for those who're sick of getting unsolicited telephone calls from Indian call centres.
That said, for those customers who actually do want to access the call centres - where they are is up to the outsource-happy company they use for flights or gas or whatever, and not the customer's fault - this is a bad thing. Hmm - this is definitely a story of flipsides.
Either way, not great for the outsourcing industry.