Undersea Internet Lifelines at Risk as Middle East Conflict Raises Alarm for India’s Digital Connectivity

In this modern information age, undersea cables have become a strong foundation for digital connectivity. According to the International Telecommunication Union, about 99 per cent of the international internet traffic goes through submarine cables. The growing instability in the region has heightened fears about the vulnerability of this infrastructure, particularly as tensions intensify.

While Iran has not officially threatened the cables' infrastructure in the war-affected region, concerns persist regarding the Red Sea, especially with Iran-backed Houthis joining the conflict. The Yamani rebel group has, on several occasions, threatened to cut the fibre-optic cables in the Red Sea, raising alarm among global policymakers and network operators.

Any disruption to these cables could be a massive concern for India, as about 60 per cent of the country's internet traffic is handled on the crucial link that passes through the Gulf, travelling from Mumbai to Europe. The rest goes through Chennai, travelling east via Singapore and the Pacific. This leaves the majority of India's internet network exposed to geopolitical tensions in the region.

While the Red Sea has always faced cable cuts, the war has escalated tensions significantly. According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, policymakers perceive the deliberate targeting of seabed infrastructure as an emerging global threat. Around 17 submarine cables reportedly pass through the Red Sea. Each cable, made up of a fibre-optic core, copper wiring, down, and plastic sheaths, transmits an average of 100 gigabytes of data. Establishing such a route can take up to a year.

Any damage to these cables is unlikely to trigger a complete data blackout, as the internet does not depend on a single route. Connectivity functions through a network of cables, allowing traffic to shift if one path is blocked. However, even a temporary disruption can prove costly for telecom and internet companies, affecting traffic management, repair schedules, and overall service quality.

In such scenarios, networks continue to function, but companies are forced to reroute data through alternative paths. This rerouting leads to congestion, further burdening already active routes and impacting performance.

"It is not as if the internet will ever be shut down, but it could get slowed down," Amajit Gupta, Chief Executive and Managing Director at Lightstorm Telecom Connectivity Pvt. Ltd, told Mint. He added, "If this choking continues to happen over a period of time and the traffic on the internet continues to grow over a period of time, then at a certain point the choke effect will be much more visible."

If repairing these cables takes longer than expected, users may experience slower financial transactions, increased buffering time, decreased download and upload speeds, and apps responding with a slight delay. Enterprises such as global capability centres could also face operational delays due to possible outages.

The unfolding crisis underscores the fragile yet critical nature of the world’s undersea internet infrastructure, with India’s heavy dependence on these routes placing its digital ecosystem at heightened risk amid escalating geopolitical tensions.