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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →A slow connection can be consistent with an undersea cable outage, but a speed test, high ping, or traceroute cannot prove that a particular cable is at fault. First compare Wi-Fi with Ethernet and test several devices and destinations; then look for matching notices from your internet provider and network-level outage reports. Treat a cable outage as confirmed only when an authoritative operator, ISP, regulator, or other responsible party says so.
Start by finding out how widespread the slowdown is
Note when the problem began, including your time zone, and whether it is continuous or intermittent. Check whether it affects one device, every device in your home, or only particular apps and websites.
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Try more than one kind of destination: for example, a local service and an international website or service. If one device or one service is slow while others work normally, an issue with that device, app, or destination is more likely than a widespread international capacity problem. It is a clue, not proof.
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Compare Wi-Fi with a wired connection
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If possible, connect a computer directly to your router with Ethernet. Check that the computer and router have compatible Ethernet ports.
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Pause large downloads and disconnect a VPN for the comparison, if practical. Use the same speed-test service over Ethernet and Wi-Fi, and note the selected test server if the service shows it.
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Repeat the test and compare the results. A clear improvement over Ethernet points toward the home Wi-Fi connection; similar slow results on both make Wi-Fi alone less likely. Neither result identifies a subsea cable.
Cloudflare describes speed.cloudflare.com as a way to test the performance and quality of an individual connection. Its Internet Quality article cautions that erratic Wi-Fi inside the home can make measured speed lower than the subscribed service level. A speed test remains a measurement of the connection to that test—not a diagnosis of the route to every other destination.
Check your ISP and public outage information
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Look at your provider’s service-status page, app, or announcements for an incident affecting your area or network.
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Check the Cloudflare Radar Outage Center for the relevant country, region, or network. Compare the reported location, affected ASN (the identifier for an internet network), outage scope, likely cause, and start or end time with when and where you are seeing problems.
Cloudflare describes its cause field as “Insight into the likely cause of the outage, based on publicly available information.” Its outage records can include cable cuts, but also power outages, severe weather, filtering or blocking, and government-directed shutdowns. An outage listing is not automatically evidence of a subsea cable problem.
Cloudflare says it correlates observed disruptions with context such as ISP status communications and reporting; some listed events may be partial, and it may not find a sourced likely cause for every disruption. A matching listing is useful context, not proof that every household on the named network is affected. No matching listing does not rule out a local or network problem.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsUse route measurements as supporting evidence, not a cable detector
For an optional technical check, run traceroute (called tracert on some systems) to more than one destination and save the output with the time and destination. A distributed traceroute can also show how paths from other networks differ. These observations may help your ISP investigate routing or packet loss.
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Traceroute does not reveal that a specific subsea cable has failed. Routers may suppress or deprioritize probe responses, and internet routes can change for operational reasons. A changed route, higher latency, or packet loss is evidence of unusual path behavior—not identification of its cause. Cloudflare’s troubleshooting guidance recommends collecting traceroute output and distributed traceroutes as supporting diagnostic information.
Submarine Cable Status offers a useful distinction in its methodology: “Confirmed” means an owner, operator, consortium, or other authoritative party has announced a fault; “Suspected” means independent signal types agree without authoritative confirmation; and “Observed” means measurements look abnormal. The site cautions, “Traffic can reroute for many reasons, so an anomaly is never proof of a cable fault.” Use those labels as a model for careful wording, not as a substitute for an operator or ISP statement.
Match your conclusion to the evidence
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Confirmed: An authoritative operator, consortium, ISP, regulator, or status notice confirms cable damage or an outage. Name the source and the affected area or network.
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Suspected or consistent with: Several independent clues align—for example, an operator report, network-level performance changes, and route or latency observations—but no authoritative statement confirms cable damage.
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Observed slowdown: Your measurements show worse performance, but the cause has not been established.
Cloudflare’s Q3 2025 outage review described a September 6, 2025 slowdown after UAE provider du warned of slowness due to an international subsea cable cut. For du’s network during that period, Cloudflare Radar metrics showed median bandwidth falling from 25 Mbps to as low as 9.8 Mbps, while median latency rose from 30 ms to more than 60 ms. Those network-level figures illustrate corroboration; they are not a threshold or test for diagnosing an individual connection. See Cloudflare’s Q3 2025 review.
The impact of a cable event can also vary by provider and country. The Internet Society’s July 2024 report on the East Africa outage records degraded access and cites analyses by Cloudflare and Kentik that identified Tanzania as having the greatest reduction in performance during the May 12 outage. That historical event does not predict the impact of an outage elsewhere.
Give your ISP a useful evidence trail
If the slowdown continues, contact your ISP with specific observations rather than only saying that your internet is slow. Include:
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The start time and time zone, and whether the problem is continuous or intermittent.
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Which devices, apps, and services are affected.
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Your Wi-Fi and Ethernet results, including the test service and selected server if shown.
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The destinations you checked, including whether local and international services behaved differently.
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Traceroute output, if available, with the destination and time of each test.
Cloudflare’s troubleshooting guidance likewise recommends timestamps, symptom details, and relevant route information when contacting support.
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