Forest Fire Near Athens Causes Latency Spikes on KAFOS and Kardesa Cables
Forest Fire in Greece
At 22:04 local time on August 17, 2026, a major forest fire occurred in the Green Forest area near Athens, Greece. The fire quickly spread due to strong winds and high temperatures characteristic of this time of year. Although the fire was contained within a few hours, its aftermath affected the submarine telecommunications infrastructure in the region.
Cables in the Fire Zone
Within a 500 km radius from the epicenter of the fire are several significant submarine cables. Among them:
- KAFOS (538 km, RFS 1997, operator Turk Telekom International) with an exit point in Igneada, Turkey (437.2 km from the fire).
- Kardesa (1385 km, RFS 2027, operators Neqsol Holding and Vodafone) with an exit point in Aheloy, Bulgaria (459.1 km from the fire).
- Apollo East и West (670 km, RFS 2025, operator Grid Telecom) with an exit point in Pachi, Greece (229.5 km from the fire).
- MedNautilus Submarine System (7000 km, RFS 2001, operator Sparkle) through Athens, Greece (231.2 km from the fire).
- Medusa Submarine Cable System (8760 km, RFS 2026, operator AFRIX Telecom) through Athens, Greece (231.2 km from the fire).
- Thetis Express (340 km, RFS 2027, operator Vodafone) through Athens, Greece (231.2 km from the fire).
- Vodafone Greece Domestic (92 km, RFS 2008, operator Vodafone) through Porto Rafti, Greece (245 km from the fire).
The greatest deviations in performance have been recorded on the KAFOS and Kardesa cables.
Analysis of Monitoring Data
Our measurements show significant anomalies in latency (RTT) on two cables:
- KAFOS: the base RTT was 46.6 ms, but during the fire it increased to 132.0 ms, representing a jump of 85.4 ms (461.6σ above normal).
- Kardesa: the base RTT was 44.8 ms, with an anomaly increasing it to 118.7 ms, meaning a rise of 74.0 ms (7.8σ above normal).
The other cables in the area, such as Apollo East and West, MedNautilus, and Medusa, demonstrated stability and continued to operate normally.
Impact on Internet Traffic
Anomalies on KAFOS and Kardesa may affect internet traffic routing in the region, especially for users in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. These cables are important links for communication between Europe and Asia. Increased delays could have led to temporary service disruptions for low-latency-dependent services such as video conferencing and online games.
Nevertheless, due to the presence of alternative routes and backup lines, global internet traffic did not experience significant outages. The infrastructure in the region demonstrated its resilience.
FUTURE Monitoring
We will continue to monitor the recovery of normal RTT parameters on the KAFOS and Kardesa cables. Special attention will be paid to potential long-term consequences of the fire, such as possible damage to terrestrial infrastructure at cable exit points. Additionally, we will analyze how similar natural phenomena may affect the resilience of the telecommunications network in the future.
Updates on the situation will be published on our website as new data becomes available.
