FALCON (cable system)

This article is about telecommunications. For other uses, see Falcon (disambiguation).

FALCON is a submarine telecommunications cable connecting India and several countries in the Persian Gulf. As part of the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe, the cable is operated by India's Flag Telecom, a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications.

Landing points are:

• Suez, Egypt
• Aqaba, Jordan
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• Port Sudan, Sudan
• Al Hudaydah, Yemen
• Al Ghaydah, Yemen
• Al Seeb, Muscat, Oman
• Khasab, Oman
• Jebel Ali, UAE
• Sumaisma, Doha, Qatar
• Manama, Bahrain
• Al Khobar, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
• Al Safat, Kuwait City, Kuwait
• Al Faw, Iraq
• Bandar Abbas, Iran
• Chabahar, Iran
• Mumbai, India

There is an additional segment, listed as part of FALCON, but not directly connected. It has landing points at:

• Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), India
• Hulhumalé, Malé, the Maldives
• Colombo, Sri Lanka

Cable cut on 1 February 2008

See also: 2008 submarine cable disruption

The "FALCON cable is reported cut at 0559 hrs GMT on February 1, 2008. Location of cut is at 56 km from Dubai, UAE on segment between UAE and Oman". This happened just two days after service interruptions in the FLAG and SEA-ME-WE4 cable.

An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying Internet and telephone traffic in three days.

On February 1, 2008, Zawya Dow Jones reported a third undersea Internet cable cut was cut in Mideast and it may be weeks to repair the damage. Two undersea cables were cut off Egypt, and one cut about 50 kilometers off Dubai.

Reports are then confirmed by other news organisations including CNN.

See also

• List of international submarine communications cables
• SEA-ME-WE 4 - undersea cable following a similar route
• 2011 Egyptian protests