New Delhi, India
THIRD UNDERSEA INTERNET CABLE DAMAGED IN MIDEAST: INDIAN FIRM
A third undersea internet cable has been damaged in the Middle East, adding to the disruption in online services after two other lines were cut earlier this week, the cable operating firm said.
The Falcon cable was cut 56km from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to its owner, Flag Telecom, which is part of India’s Reliance Communications.
The repair ship had been notified and was expected to arrive at the site in the next few days, the company said on its website.
Flag Telecom owns another cable that was damaged off Egypt on Wednesday. A repair ship was expected to arrive by Tuesday to restore that cable and repairs were expected to take a week, the company said.
The outages have disrupted business across the Middle East and South Asia, including in India, where businesses said it may take up to 15 days to return to normal.
About 70% of internet users in Egypt were affected when two submarine cables in the Mediterranean Sea were damaged on Wednesday, also rupturing connections thousands of kilometres away.
State-owned Saudi Telecom reported the loss of more than 50% of its international lines, the Arab News reported.
Egypt’s Telecommunications Ministry said repairs would take ”at least a week” and appealed for users not to overload the back-up system with hefty downloads and file-sharing applications.
The cause of the damage is not yet known. — Sapa-AFP