Update: 3 Undersea Cable Cuts Hit India Net Traffic !

[Honest 836]

Update: 3 undersea cable cuts hit India net traffic

Business Standard l 20 Dec l New Delhi

Three major undersea cables -- the Sea Me We 4, Sea Me We3, and FLAG -- were cut, considerably slowing down India's internet and voice traffic. The extent of the damage is still being assessed.

The voice operations (call centres) of IT-BPO firms comprise around 20-30 per cent of most firms in India, and get hit the most -— especially if the International Private Leased Circuits (IPLCs) are down too. An IPLC is a point-to-point private line used by an organisation to communicate between offices that are dispersed throughout the world.

Consequently, it's generally the smaller business process outsourcing (BPO) units that get badly affected. The larger ones have built-in redundancy that does not make them very vulnerable. They also have connections from both the Pacific and Atlantic routes so if one route is affected the load automatically gets transferred on the other route.

Moreover, those firms that have delivery centres around the world will not be affected as much since they can divert some work to other centres. Moreover, a considerable amount of high-end analytics work can be done offline.

Fibres cut in recent years:

• - January 20, 2007 - Due to Taiwan Earthquake
  
• - January 30, 2008 - in Mediterranean Region
  
• - Now December 19, 2008 again in Mediterranean Region
  

"Being a Saturday, we may not feel the full impact of the cuts. Though there's no doubt that traffic has slowed down to a snail's pace. Moreover, given the global slowdown, most companies themselves are going slow, and hence the impact may be lower. However, what is surprising is the regularity with which these cuts have been happening," said Rajesh Chharia President, Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), told Business Standard.

A statement from France Telecom said the Sea Me We4 could be up by December 25, and it hoped the overall situation would be back to normal by the end of December. The causes of the cut -- located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt -- remain unclear.

France Telecom said it immediately alerted one of the two maintenance boats based in the Mediterranean area, the "Raymond Croze". In its initial assessment, the company listed 14 countries affected by the current problem. The Maldives are 100 per cent down, followed by India, which has 82 per cent disruption. Qatar, Djibouti and the UAE were the next most widely affected areas with about 70 per cent service interrupted. Disruptions for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan range from 51 per cent to 55 per cent.

Impact on voice traffic:

• - India: 82% out of service
  
• - Saudi Arabia: 55% out of service
  
• - Djibouti: 71% out of service
  
• - Egypt: 52% out of service
  
• - United Arab Emirates: 68% out of service
  
• - Lebanon: 16% out of service
  
• - Malaysia: 42% out of service
  
• - Maldives: 100% out of service
  
• - Pakistan: 51% out of service
  
• - Qatar: 73% out of service
  
• - Syria: 36% out of service
  
• - Taiwan: 39% out of service
  
• - Yemen: 38% out of service
  
• - Zambia: 62% out of service
  

Most of the traffic between Europe and Asia is re-routed through the US. Traffic from Europe to Algeria and Tunisia is not affected, but traffic from Europe to the Near East and Asia (incuding India -- see table) is interrupted to a greater or lesser extent.

The (SEA-ME-WE) SMW-3 and SMW-4 are owned by groups of phone companies including Bharti Airtel while FLAG cable systems is owned by Reliance Globalcom (an Anil Ambani owned company). And it was only this February, that damage to the trans-Atlantic submarine (undersea) cables slowed down Internet traffic and affected IT-BPO firms for almost three weeks across India before they were reparied, even as Indian telecom operators were diverting traffic over alternate routes.

Call centres of IT-BPO firms were the most affected then, since the IPLCs were down too. Unsubstantiated sabotage theories were doing the rounds too.

Submarine cables are laid beneath the sea to carry telephone and Internet traffic. They can be broken or damaged by fishing trawlers, anchoring, undersea avalanches and even shark bites. In 2006, an earthquake centred near Taiwan had severed several undersea cables, and Internet services slowed to a crawl across major parts of Asia.

In February, a storm struck the Egyptian coast on January 30, making it impossible for ships to dock at the Alexandria port. This prompted some of the ships to anchor off seas, and it is believed a ship dropped its anchor right on the top of the submarine cable channel.

How are undersea cables repaired?

• - Find the location of the accident; drag the damaged part to the surface, and replace it with a new stretch of cable
  
• - May also send light pulses along the fibres in the cable to determine the exact location
  
• - A working fibre will transmit those pulses all the way across the ocean; a broken one will bounce it back
  
• - The telecom operator then sends out a large cable ship with a few miles of fresh fibre-optic lines
  
• - If the faulty part of the cable is less than about 4,000 feet down, a submersible robot can be sent
  
• - The robot finds the right place; grabs hold of the cable; cuts out the malfunctioning section, and pulls the loose ends back up to the ship
  
• - Robots do not work in very deep water. In such cases, technicians use a grapnel to cut the cable and hold it
  
• - A skilled technician (jointer) splices the glass fibres; uses adhesives to attach the new section of cable
  
• - The repaired cable is then lowered back to the seabed on ropes
  

[santhoshavanoor 7]

Thanks for the detailed information. Also you have given the details of repairing. Thanks

Here in Bahrain, Batelco and Zain also affected, and internet is very slow with both of these operators. Telephone calls to India also disrupted.

[rbpyogesh 0]

Thanks for the detailed explanation

The Internet in India is affected again

I have a question here

If u are having Data Cards

Will the Internet slow down affect the person???

[dkaile 1,051]

Yes, My Airtel Broadband Download Speed has dropped from 50kbps to 5-10 kbps since yesterday...

[KumaarShah 143]

Absolutely no change with BSNL BB as yet.....

[phonegeek 588]

I am too feeling noticeable drop in the speed of Reliance Wimax BB. Even many times the pages are not loading on the first instance. Have to refresh 2-3 times.

I hope things get resolve soon unlike last time cable cut !

[ipkonfig 10]

For me browsing speed has reduced considerably. But downloading during the night time remains at 180~220 kBps...

[branditlikeme 0]

Hello People , This is to inform you guys that there has been a temporary dip in the net speeds as there has been a cable cut in the mediterranean region. From my reading...it seems the full damage is going to be repaired by the 25th December..till then we shall have to bear with the slow speed

[Arun 795]

Some ISPs like Sify and Metamax in some cities were reported to be completely down earlier. BSNL in some cities are experiencing slowness. TATA Indicom for me looks normal though I do notice that the ping times are quite high now, probably due to the congestion in the route (TATA Indicom uses the other route via Canada)

[Arun 795]

I have a question here

If u are having Data Cards

Will the Internet slow down affect the person???

Ofcourse, the issue is at the upstream provider's network and not within the last mile.

[Mufaddal 678]

my sify connection is completely down......

i m surviving on my vodafone connect ....but that also seems to b working quite slow

[Honest 836]

^^^

Their are problems with Sify always. Be it a cable cut or not.

[ravi_patent 28]

there is a lesson for the policy makers

facilitatae hosting the servers in India rather than in US ....

dear arun

probably you are lucky

tata (wired) bb in chennai doesnot connect for most of the time...

[Mufaddal 678]

@honest

Correct bro

[santhoshavanoor 7]

Now my WiMAX connection with zain becomes normal from yesterday evening. I think they diverted the internet route. Also French Telecom temporarily repaired one damaged cable.

[Honest 836]

Internet service still spotty in parts of Mideast

AP/ PTI / Dubai l December 22

Spotty Internet service continued to plague the Middle East as it began its work, with service providers rerouting data detoured by severed underwater cables.

Emirati provider Etisalat says service is at about 85 per cent capacity yesterday -- the same as the previous day. The Abu Dhabi-based company has arranged to redirect some of its data traffic through South Asia, spokesman Saeed al-Badi says.

Dubai-based Emirates Integrated Telecommunications, better known as Du, said Saturday it was rerouting data and international voice traffic through Asia and the western United States. Officials could not immediately be reached yesterday.

Egypt's Communications Ministry, for its part, made a similar announcement Saturday that it was rerouting traffic through Indian Ocean cables after the main ones in the Mediterranean were cut.

After there was no connection for Friday and and much of Saturday, internet service was restored to Egypt at around 70 per cent capacity by yesterday.

The ministry said the repair work may take up to a week.

Friday's cut was the second large-scale Internet outage in the region this year.

[dkaile 1,051]

My Airtel BB speed is back to 25-30kbps but still not upto 50kbps (which is the speed of my connection), though there is no visible distinction in browsing speed, only when I download any file is this apparent...

[KumaarShah 143]

Today my BSNL BB is not upto the mark, the speeds are very slow only sub 20kbps d/l speeds and while browsing, the pages return an server error. I have to refresh the page number of times.

My question is, why did it take so long for BSNL to show the effect of the defective cables or is there some other problem?

[Honest 836]

Reliance Communications to repair submarine cable by next week

REUTERS l 22 Dec 2008 l New Delhi

India's No. 2 mobile operator, Reliance Communications, said it expected to repair by next week its damaged submarine cable, which along with cuts in two other cables had disrupted Internet and phone services in some parts of the Middle East and South Asia.

Breaks in the three submarine cables under the Mediterranean, including the Reliance's FLAG Europe-Asia cable, were possibly caused by a ship's anchor at the weekend. A ship with spares was on its way to the site, Reliance said on Monday in a statement to Reuters. 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 of customers.

The company said it had diverted the traffic via Pacific region and customers were using the services, though some congestion was expected.

[manishag 17]

i am getting the normal speed for the torrents but my yahoo mails are returning and according to yahoo customer care this is because of cable cut

[santhoshavanoor 7]

In my office Batelco(bahrain) now working normally same as before the cable damage. But this line is a leased line. Sometimes in my home with Zain(bahrain) having probelms. So I called them and they replied that the problems still have with Europe servers. But to India and Middle east from Bahrain they have re routed the traffic. Now calls to India and Dubai is same as normal.

[ssr 10]

For me only BT traffic got affected.

[commonman 228]

So far I have not felt any difference in my BSNL service. IKts working normally all thru. Same thing in my work place too which is also on BSNL.

So what happened? why was BSNL not effected?

[Arun 795]

It seems the reports are varying in different cities even for the same provider. All providers were affected definitely, but the impact might have varied depending upon the congestion in the city you are living.

Internet services still severely affected as repair on undersea cables continue

The Hindu - Tuesday, Dec 23, 2008

NEW DELHI: Internet services in the country remained severely affected on Monday even as the repair of three major undersea cables — SeaMeWe (SMW) 4, SMW 3 and Reliance Communications’ Flag – between Egypt and Italy in the Mediterranean Sea that were damaged last weekend continued. Consortiums and companies owning these submarine cables, mainly connecting Europe to Asia, have said that it would take at least a week to repair these cables and normalise the situation.

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

According to Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) president Rajesh Chharia, congestion and slow Internet speed were being felt across the country. Three crucial sectors — 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 position as “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 the end of the month. Tata Communications, which is part of the consortium for SMW3, has managed to control the situation well as it had strengthened its back-up mechanism after a similar cable cut incident occurred in the Mediterranean region in January this year.

However, companies like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications still needed to improve their contingency plans to meet such situations, he added.

In a statement, Bharti Airtel said it was working with the cable consortium for restoration of services. “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,” it added.

Similarly, Reliance Communications said it would take at least a week to repair its damaged submarine cable. Though it has diverted the traffic via Pacific region, customers are facing the problem of 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 of customers.

[Honest 836]

Net woes: RCom writes to telecom regulator

Business Line l 23 Dec l New Delhi

Blames Airtel for not giving access to extra bandwidth.

The move follows disruption in Internet and international data services after three undersea cables got cut in the Mediterranean Sea.

Even as Internet services continued to be disrupted in the country, Reliance Communications has written to the telecom regulator that other long distance telecom operators, especially Bharti Airtel, was not co-operating in giving access to its infrastructure.

The move follows disruption in Internet and international data services after three undersea cables got cut in the Mediterranean Sea. One of the cables- FLAG- is owned by Reliance.

“In order to improve the availability of bandwidth to customers in India, we had also requested Bharti to grant us immediate access to its Chennai Cabling Landing Station. We have filled the requisite application and have also made the payment to them. We have requested Bharti to expedite the process, however we have not yet got the access as yet,” said Reliance Communications in a letter to the telecom regulator.

RCom said that international carriers in other countries have cooperated but Bharti Airtel is holding up the available capacity. While Bharti Airtel and Tata Communication’s cable network was affected due to the cable cuts, they own capacity on alternative routes. For example, Bharti moved its customers to its i2i cable routed from Chennai to Singapore. However, RCom has only FLAG cable system, which has also developed a snag.

Bharti’s response

Responding to RCom’s letter to TRAI, Bharti Airtel spokesperson said: “We are taking all necessary steps for restoration of services and is currently routing traffic on alternative routes like its i2i undersea cable. This cable is currently being used to meet our own requirement as well as the requirements of other impacted operators.

“We are working overtime to ensure that the requests for additional bandwidths are addressed as soon as the equipment to enhance capacity are available with us. We received request from Reliance Communications only yesterday and are trying our best to resolving their problem in the current situation as soon as possible.”

This is the second time that RCom has approached the telecom regulator after one of its undersea cables got cut. Earlier this year, its FLAG cable had developed a major cut which disrupted Internet services in the region in a major way.

Even in that instance Reliance had sought the regulators intervention alleging Bharti Airtel and Tata Telecommunications were asking for a fee that was higher than the prevailing market price. TRAI had called for a joint industry meeting in a bid to get the operators to co-operate with each other.