Repair work has started on one of three broken undersea cables providing data services to parts of the Middle East and Asia and a repair ship was expected to reach a second cable on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

Undersea cable connections were disrupted off Egypt's northern coast last week when segments of two international cables were cut, affecting Internet access in the Gulf region and South Asia, and forcing service providers to re-route traffic.

A third undersea cable, FALCON, was reported broken off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Friday and Indian-owned cable network operator FLAG Telecom said on Tuesday a ship had reached the location and repair work had started.