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du, etisalat re-route voice and data traffic after cable damage
Damage to three cables resulted in high levels of network congestion and degradation of international voice service and data traffic, affecting all customers in the UAE, Levant, Egypt and parts of Africa.
- Staff Report
- Published: 08:26 December 20, 2008
- Internet services were disrupted on Friday due to damage to three undersea telecom cables in the Mediterranean Sea, according to etisalat.
- Image Credit: Megan Hirons/Gulf News
Dubai: du said on Saturday it had re-routed data and international voice traffic through alternative cable systems in the Far East and western United States after cuts in submarine cable systems located between Alexandria and Italy severely affected voice and internet services.
The UAE telecom operator said the damage to three cables resulted in high levels of network congestion and degradation of international voice service and data traffic, affecting all customers in the UAE, Levant, Egypt and parts of Africa.
etisalat, the other UAE telecom service provider, is also using alternative routes to ensure continuity of service.
Meanwhile, a French ship on Saturday took experts to repair the broken cables, France Telecom said.
The France Telecom cable ship Raymond Croze left Seyne-sur-Mer, southern France, on Friday night and was expected to be on the scene of the damage, between Sicily and Tunisia, on Sunday, a company spokesman said.
The disruption also affected Asian countries as far away as Singapore, Malaysia, India and Pakistan.
Egypt announced on Friday that it was rerouting internet services to back-up cables and satellite.
An Egyptian Communications Ministry official said the disruption reduced Egypt's internet capacity by about 80 per cent, while consumers said the internet service was either non-existent or very slow.
In Pakistan, internet service provider Micronet Broadband said its customers were facing degraded internet services because of "issues" on the cables.
Micronet engineer Wajahat Basharat said on Saturday internet traffic was congested and slow and some of it was being diverted to other routes.
Kuwait's Telecommunications Ministry said late on Friday it was trying to secure continued services until the damage to the cables was repaired and asked for users' understanding.
The International Cable Protection Committee, an association of submarine cable operators, said it was "aware of multiple submarine cable failures in the Eastern Mediterranean area that may be affecting the speed of internet communications on some routes."
Officials with AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications, the two largest US-based carriers, said that some customers in the Middle East had lost all service, while others were experiencing partial disruptions on Internet connections.
Verizon had rerouted some of its traffic by sending it across the Atlantic, then the United States, across the Pacific, and on to the Middle East.
The Cables
SEA-ME-WE4 is 20,000 km long and links 14 countries. It runs from France through the Red Sea to India and then Singapore.
SEA-ME-WE3 is 40,000 km long and links 33 countries. It runs from northern Germany to Spain, the Red Sea, India and Southeast Asia, from where two branches extend as far as Australia and South Korea.
FLAG Europe Asia (FEA) is 27,000 km long and runs from Britain through the Red Sea to India, Southeast Asia and Japan.
With inputs from agencies
Has your internet connection been affected? Do you know anyone who shares the same problem? How has this incident affected you?
Your comments
I had plans on Friday to finish some important projects and upload them but because of the problem I was not able to accomplish them. I feel really helpless.
Faisal
Dubai,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 10:30
My internet connection has been badly affected. All the messengers that I use for chatting keep getting disconnected and I am not able to communicate with my family in India.
Saujanya
Dubai,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 10:27
How could etisalat say they are "less affected" when until now internet services are very badly affected?
Misbah
Dubai,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 09:57
I lost almost 90 per cent of my connections and I lost a great deal of money as I do electronic internet trading. etisalat needs to provide alternative systems with different sources that have the same speed. The internet is still not up to speed yet.
Amir
Dubai,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 09:56
The internet has been very slow since Friday morning. Traffic over http is fine in almost all the websites. However, https ssl (secure port) traffic is impossible to access. This is affecting our online business and staff access to the https website.
Munir
Dubai,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 09:56
People in my office were complaining that they were not able to work properly yesterday because the internet connection was down.
Sanjay
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 09:44
Whatever etisalat did to ensure the "smooth" flow on the net didn't help! Most, if not all, the sites are either taking hours to load, or just not opening.
Ahmed
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 09:30
The internet speed is very slow even today. etisalat should send messages to customers about service disruption as no one answers the call centre number on holidays.
Nashid
Dubai,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 09:20
My internet connection is very slow and now I can not even browse my mails using my Blackberry.
Hasu
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 09:09
I could not connect to any website or messaging services.
Shanawaz
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 08:49
Even money exchange shops were affected on Friday.
Khaled
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 08:47
I have had problems with the connection the whole day on Friday and even now, although I was able to access websites within the UAE. But opening facebook or even connecting to yahoo messenger was impossible. I hope that the damage can be prepared soon as my entire work projects depend on the internet.
Ayman
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: December 20, 2008, 08:41
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