Cable Cuts Disrupt Communications
International Phone, Web Service Hurt by Undersea Breaks

By Camilla Hall and Bibhudatta Pradhan
Bloomberg News
Friday, February 1, 2008

India and countries across the Middle East experienced slow Internet connections and disruption to international calls to the United States and Europe yesterday after two submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean Sea were cut.

The cable breaks have cut capacity by more than half for some Web access and telephone companies in the affected regions. They carry 70 percent of voice traffic to the West, according to Orascom Telecom Holding, the biggest mobile phone company in the Middle East and North Africa. Stock trading in Egypt and phone calls from as far away as the United States have been disrupted.

"Everyone is trying to absorb the shock and is trying to deal with it" by using alternatives, said Joseph Metry, Orascom network supervisor. Repairs to the break -- caused by a ship's anchor near Alexandria, in northern Egypt -- will start Feb. 4, said a spokesman for Flag Telecom in Mumbai. Customers are being provided with alternatives through other cables, he said.

Du, the United Arab Emirates' second-largest mobile phone company, said it has re-routed international outbound voice traffic on other available routes and secured more capacity for Internet access.

Customers will notice some congestion during peak hours, and accessing overseas Web sites will still be slow, Metry said. National calls and Web sites in Egypt weren't affected, he said. Traffic is being carried through another cable in Suez, and Telecom Egypt is trying to boost capacity from 25 percent to 75 percent, Metry said.

"Now, I believe, all the Internet service providers have partial access to the Internet, but at a quarter of their capacities," Metry said.

Customers of San Antonio-based AT&T have been affected, spokesman Michael Coe said. AT&T is part of the group that owns one of the cables, Coe said.

Some customers of New York-based Verizon were also affected by the cable break, spokeswoman Linda Laughlin said. Verizon also co-owns one of the cables as part of a group of carriers, and the companies pay regular maintenance fees that will cover the cost to repair the cable, Laughlin said.

Coe and Laughlin said they didn't know how many clients were affected.

"Our trading capacity has been hurt by the slow Internet connection," Mohamed Ashmawy, a trader at Commercial International Brokerage, said via phone from Cairo. "We don't have access to some trading platforms, so we can't execute client orders through the usual messaging systems."