UAE to aid Pakistan telecom repair

UAE-based company E-Marine is sending a ship to Pakistan on Wednesday to fix a fault in the country's submarine telecommunications link, which has caused a breakdown in the country's Internet and telephone services.

The submarine cable-laying maintenance subsidiary of Emirates Telecommunications Co (Etisalat) is due to arrive at the site about 50km off the Pakistani coast within two days, but officials said the cable might remain out of order for up to five days.

Millions of Internet and telephone users were hit by the fault which was discovered on Monday in the submarine fibre-optic link in the Arabian Sea.

Satellite link-ups have restored some services.

"The ship will start sailing this afternoon as it had to be equipped with cables, joints and other accessories," Mashkoor Husain, Senior Executive Vice president of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).

Locating the fault may take three to five days, Husain said.

Pakistan's telecom sector and its call centres said they had suffered heavy losses as a result of the problem.

"Half our US clients have run away in the past two days and the rest are bent upon abandoning their operations here," said Farrukh Aslam, president of the Association of Pakistani Call Centres.

The fault has ruined Pakistan's efforts of protect a growing call centre industry which has attracted some 25 US clients in the last two years, Aslam added.

Pakistan is the only country in the region which relies on a single cable.

The work could require a complete shutdown, potentially causing disruption in India, the United Arab Emirates, Djibouti and Oman, which are also linked to the damaged cable, officials have said.