The Hindu : Front Page : Repairs under way, Internet still hit

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Tuesday, Dec 23, 2008
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Repairs under way, Internet still hit

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: Internet services in the country remained severely affected on Monday even as repairs continued to three major undersea cables — SeaMeWe (SMW) 4, SMW 3 and Reliance Communications’ Flag – between Egypt and Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. The damage occurred last weekend.

Consortiums and companies owning these submarine cables, mainly connecting Europe to Asia, have said it would take at least a week to normalise the situation.

Three Indian companies — Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Communications, which fully or partially own the cables, have said the repairs were being carried out on a war-footing. To avoid major inconvenience to customers, they have shifted the traffic via the Pacific route. However, this is causing congestion in both voice and data services.

According to Internet Service Providers Association of India president Rajesh Chharia, congestion and slow Internet speed were being felt across the country. The telecom, information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors were feeling the heat as these cables are part of the Europe-Asia link carrying the bulk of Internet traffic between Asia and the rest of the world.

Terming the current situation “critical,” Mr. Chharia said: “IT and BPO companies are experiencing very slow Internet access connectivity, while telecom companies have shifted to their back-up mechanism to carry on ISD calls particularly to the Middle East, the U.S. and Europe.”

While Reliance Communications’ cable was likely to be fully functional by mid-week, the other two cables were likely to be repaired by month-end.

Tata Communications, which is part of the consortium for SMW3, managed to control the situation, he said. It strengthened its back-up mechanism after a similar cable cut incident occurred in the Mediterranean region in January this year.

In a statement, Bharti Airtel said: “The voice traffic has been completely normalised. Bharti Airtel is taking all necessary steps to ensure data services are available to its customers by routing traffic on alternative routes like its ‘i2i’ undersea cable.” Reliance Communications said it would take at least a week to repair its damaged cable. Though it has diverted the traffic via Pacific region, customers are facing congestion.

Reliance said its unit, Reliance Globalcom, which operates the Flag cable network, was working closely with its suppliers and partners to build additional capacity to meet year-end traffic.

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