The Vice President of the Arab Federation for the Digital Economy Abdel-Wahab Ghoneim debunked rumors of a global internet outage reported to occur on October 11 due to a solar storm.
During a phone interview with the Al-Mehwar satellite channel, on Tuesday, Abdel-Wahab added that NASA denied the rumors as well as the ICANN organization, which is responsible for distributing internet domain addresses in the world.
Over 95 percent of the Internet in the world is transmitted via submarine cables, and five percent via waves from satellites, mobile networks, and Wi-Fi, he explained.
He assured that solar storms cannot affect the internet significantly, explaining, “The percentage of the Internet operating in the air represents only five percent, and no matter how many solar storms come, it will not affect (the internet).”
Abdel-Wahab stated that every time an explosion occurs in the sun, a solar storm occurs, affecting communications networks via satellite for limited periods.
There are up to 500 main submarine cables for transmitting the internet, he added, with some of these measuring more than 40,000 kilometers long, passing through nearly 40 countries.
Abdel-Wahab revealed that Egypt’s share of global internet cables amounts to 17 cables, passing through the Suez Canal, and it is the second largest country in the number of cables passing through it after the USA.
The number of satellites transmitting the internet and communications in the world reaches 2,200, but the volume of data transmitted through them is much less than that transmitted via cables.
