News of yet another undersea cable damage near Dubai has made netizens sit up, as it comes just a few days after the cable breakdown in Egypt.
Reliance Communications-owned cable damaged due to “unknown” reasons
NEW DELHI: News of yet another undersea cable damage near Dubai has made netizens sit up, as it comes just a few days after the cable breakdown in Egypt. But, this time around, Internet services in India may not be affected, say experts.
Reliance Communications-owned Falcon Undersea Cable Systems has been damaged, near Dubai, due to “unknown” reasons.
But, the damage will not impact the internet or voice services in India as the cable’s route is different, according to president of Internet Service Providers of India (ISPAI) Rajesh Chharia.
Earlier this week, undersea cables, including Reliance Communications’ Flag Europe-Asia cable, were cut near Egypt after anchoring of a ship. That had disrupted internet services in India, among other parts of the world. Although most of the internet traffic in India has now been rerouted, it’s likely to take around a fortnight to restore the damaged cable.
Falcon, which was launched in 2006, provides international bandwidth to connect India, Middle-East and Europe. Falcon is part of the Flag Telecom network. According to the official website of Flag Telecom, the location of the Falcon cut is at 56 km from Dubai, on a segment between United Arab Emirates and Oman.
It adds, “repair ship loaded with spares is ready in Abu Dhabi port. However, due to bad weather, the port authorities have not permitted any ships to sail. As soon as weather clears, the ship will sail to the repair ground.”
There are three upstream providers of bandwidth-Reliance’s Flag, Bharti and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL). Since Wednesday, Internet users in India have been facing slowdown in connectivity and download speed.
The cut in bandwidth in India was estimated at around 50 to 60 per cent. Countries across the world, including India, had witnessed a breakdown such as this one in December 2006 due to an earthquake in Taiwan. Complete restoration of the damaged cable had taken around two months.
m_nivedita@dnaindia.net
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