Internet Users in India Face Connectivity Issues After Submarine Cable Damage
Internet users and businesses in India are experiencing slower connections and intermittent service disruptions following damage to major undersea cable systems connecting India to Europe.
What Happened
On September 6th 2025, multiple fiber cuts were reported on two key submarine cable systems, SEA-ME-WE 4(SMW4) and I-ME-WE(IMEWE) , which form critical links between India, the Middle East and Europe.These systems are responsible for carrying a large portion of India’s international internet traffic, and damage has led to capacity impairments across multiple service providers.
Leading operators including Tata Communications, Airtel and Jio have confirmed the incident and initiated rerouting measures to restore traffic flows.
Impact on Internet Performance
- Increased Latency: Connections between India and Europe/USA East Coast, which normally have round-trip latency of 120–150ms, are now exceeding 200ms.
- Packet Loss: Consistent packet loss in the range of 5–20%has been observed since 9:00 AM IST(UTC+5:30).
- Regional Impact: The disruptions are affecting all major Indian data centers, including those in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi, whenever traffic is routed internationally.
- Domestic Stability: Connectivity within India remains unaffected, with local latency and bandwidth performing normally.
Broader Implications
For businesses, the disruptions mean:
- International users may experience slower load times and intermittent failures when accessing websites or applications hosted in Indian data centers.
- Third-party monitoring tools(Pingdom, UpTimeRobot, etc.)that probe servers from non-Indian locations will likely trigger alarms for latency and packet loss.
- SaaS platforms, banking services and global enterprises dependent on low-latency connections may face user dissatisfaction and reduced productivity.
For individual users, this could manifest as buffering during video calls, difficulty accessing global websites, or lag in online gaming.
Response and Next Steps
Telecom providers and undersea cable operators are actively working on rerouting traffic via alternate cables and terrestrial paths.While such rerouting typically mitigates the worst of the outages, it does not fully eliminate the problem — and users may continue to experience higher latency and packet loss until repairs are completed on SMW4 and IMEWE.
Given the complexity of undersea cable repairs — which require specialized ships, weather windows and international coordination — timelines for full restoration are not yet clear.Providers have assured that regular updates will be issued as work progresses.
Why Submarine Cables Matter
Submarine cables carry over 95%of international internet traffic, acting as the backbone of global digital connectivity.A single disruption can ripple across multiple regions, affecting everything from streaming services to mission-critical enterprise applications. India, with its rapidly growing internet economy, is especially dependent on these cables to maintain seamless connectivity with Europe and the United States.
Looking Ahead
While such disruptions are rare, they underscore the fragility of the global internet infrastructure.The current incident highlights the need for:
- Diversification of routes across multiple undersea cables.
- Investment in redundancy to minimize the impact of single points of failure.
- Transparent communication between service providers and customers during outages.
For now, customers are advised to expect degraded international connectivity until rerouting efforts stabilize traffic or the damaged cables are fully repaired.
References:
— https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/red-sea-cable-cuts-cripple-microsoft-azure-disrupt-17-of-global-internet-traffic-13526622.html
— https://apnews.com/article/red-sea-undersea-cables-cut-internet-disruption-yemen-b79fe7b9764647ac0851b9390a313e70
— https://cloudleaders.in/internet-users-in-india-face-potential-service-disruptions-after-submarine-cable-damage/
