Cable woes to affect UAE internet until Friday - Etisalat - Technology

Tuesday, 27 April 2010 5:29 PM

PROBLEMS: Repair work is ongoing on the undersea cable, UAE telco Etisalat has confirmed.

Repair work to the damaged Mediterranean Sea cable, which has caused internet problems in the UAE, will affect services until at least Friday.

And while UAE telecoms giant Etisalat has said it expects the work to be completed by April 30, a leading analyst has estimated a complete restoration of service could take until late on Sunday May 2.

The work was originally scheduled to be completed on April 20, according to rival telco du. A second deadline was set for April 27, however the Etisalat confirmed a new delay due to bad weather.

“The management committee of the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable which suffered damage in the Mediterranean Sea last week, has updated its customers on the status of repairs,” UAE-telecoms giant Etisalat said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The cable ship tasked with repairing the cable arrived on April 24 and started the repair process on April 25,” the statement continued. “A delay was experienced in this process caused by bad weather. It is now expected that the repairs will be completed on April 30 and Internet normalisation within the UAE will be seen immediately afterwards.”

However Graham Nonweiler, group managing director of global telecoms specialists Nonweiler Associates, which monitors global internet cable connectivity around the world, said that “the current best estimate for complete restoration of normal service on SMW4 is late afternoon UAE time Sunday 2nd May.”

Nonweiler added that when repairs started on Sunday April 25 the entire European section of the cable, from Egypt to France, was switched off and “this is why connectivity in the UAE took a nosedive on Sunday afternoon and has progressively got worse since then”.

He added that at present “Etisalat's broadband customers are being routed Eastwards across the Pacific in to the US, and onwards to Europe as needed. This has placed additional loading on those routes, so they too are now saturated.”

Etisalat’s statement added that it “is continuously monitoring the situation and has provisioned more capacity across different cable systems to compensate for the lost cable fibers”.

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Posted by: Bobby Thursday, 29 April 2010 2:53 PM[UAE] - UAE

The monthly fee should be waived off (proportionately) as that is justified now. Already internet connection is not upto the so called "International standard". Even 1mb or more you dont get the same... how is it justified ? Who is to question ? Anyways does it make any difference if we write here ?? Time waste !!!

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Posted by: jiggy Wednesday, 28 April 2010 10:23 AM[UAE]

Yesterday, I tried to call Etisalat (101) to enquire what has happened since the morning, I got thru sometime in the afternoon (Their agents were "busy attending to other customers"). They told me that it "may be done by the end of the month". No reports in the daily newspaper, and finally I had to google "SEA-ME-WE 4" in the news search today... that's where I found the updated news on Arabianbusiness. So much for keeping the customers informed!

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Posted by: Punky Brewster Wednesday, 28 April 2010 7:43 AM[UAE]

Is etisalat gonna be BOLD enough to waive ONE-Month's Broadband fees for the disruption, like Batelco did, in BAH last year? I doubt it, but as a kind gesture (yeah right, Etisalat....) they should just give us a free month's Internet connection. Let's see.... All they lose is from a national customer base is peanuts, compared to the reach of Etisalat being global. But then again, it's MONEY.... they will charge U accordingly, but when it comes to services, BLAME it on someone else!!

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Posted by: HD Wednesday, 28 April 2010 7:17 AM[UAE] - Iran

It could possibly be due to the Sub's which are cruising around the Strait . Just a guess .

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Posted by: AHMAD Wednesday, 28 April 2010 7:00 AM[UAE]

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT BOTH DU AND ETISALAT DONT GET THE DATES RIGHT? THEY FIRST SAY THE 20TH OF APRIL, THEN 27TH, AND NOW THEY'RE SAYING THE 30TH????? THEY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET TO WORLD CLASS TELECOM STANDARDS WITH THIS UNPROFESSIONALISM. HAVING SLOW INTERNET FOR 10 DAYS NOW BECAUSE OF A 'BROKEN CABLE' IN THE SEA IS UNHEARD OF IN ANY CITY WITH THE STANDARDS OF DUBAI. IMPROVEMENT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND FAST.

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Cable woes to affect UAE internet until Friday - Etisalat

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