Days after two undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea were severed; a French ship is now on scene to help begin repairs on two of three damaged cables.  Engineers believe the cables were mistakenly cut by a ship's anchor.

Telecommunications companies ranging from Cairo to Dubai were forced to reroute service through other Asian and North American hosts.

Telecommunication specialists will use a robotic submarine to help analyze where the cables were damaged, then they'll be pulled to the surface for engineers to fix on the ship.  Two of the cables are used by France Telecom, with the other cable operated by Reliance Globalcom.

France Telecom hopes to have one cable repaired on December 25, with the other cable fixed sometime before the end of the year.

Internet and telecommunications were cut for two days in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.  Other nations, including Zambia, India and Taiwan, also had varying levels of downtime and sluggishness with service.  Around 80 percent of overall Internet capability in Egypt is fully operational again.  

The entire Middle East only uses three sea cables for all of its Internet traffic, so the cut sea cables could drastically impact business in the region.

This marks the second time in 2008 that the same undersea line had been cut -- the first time, in January, was also reportedly caused by the anchor from a passing ship.  All cables used in the undersea cable network are designed to withstand punishment, but fishing and shipping industries along with volcanic activity and extreme weather can damage the cables.