Global Internet Access Shockwaves: Cable Cuts, Censorship & Broadband Booms (Sept 6–7, 2025)
Massive Outages and Network Disruptions On September 6, a sudden multi-cable break in the Red Sea sent shockwaves through global connectivity. Several undersea fiber-optic cables (including the SMW4 and IMEWE systems) were simultaneously cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia beaumontenterprise.com. The impact was felt across continents – internet traffic between Europe/Asia and the Middle East slowed to a crawl, and countries like Pakistan and India experienced degraded service beaumontenterprise.com. Microsoft’s Azure cloud warned users of increased latency as data was rerouted onto backup paths beaumontenterprise.com. In the Gulf, UAE customers on du and Etisalat noticed sluggish speeds beaumontenterprise.com. While the exact