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Egypt's telecommunications ministry appealed today for Internet users to stop downloading movies and MP3s so as to give priority to businesses. -- PHOTO: AFP
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MUMBAI - A THIRD undersea cable was cut on Friday, just two days after two breaks near Egypt disrupted Web access in parts of the Middle East and Asia, Indian-owned cable network operator Flag Telecom said.
Egypt lost more than half its Internet capacity because of Wednesday's breaks and intends to seek compensation, its ministry of communications said in a news release.
India's booming outsourcing industry, which provides a range of back-office services, like insurance claims processing and customer support to overseas clients over the Internet, played down Wednesday's disruption, saying they had used back-up plans.
Flag, a wholly-owned subsidiary of India's number two mobile operator Reliance Communications, said on its website on Friday its Falcon cable had been reported cut at 1.59pm Singapore time, 56 kilometres from Dubai, between the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Egyptian telecom authorities said about 55 per cent of the country's Internet capacity had been restored by Friday, thanks to rerouting of traffic.
Egypt is to ask Flag and SEA-ME-WE to compensate its Internet and call centre companies.
The communications minister, Mr Tarek Kamel, has also decided to make Egypt's Internet Service Providers and Telecom Egypt compensate all their Internet subscribers by providing them with a month's subscription free of charge.
The International Cable Protection Committee, an association of 86 submarine cable operators dedicated to safeguarding undersea cables, has declined to speculate on the cause of the breaches, saying investigations were underway.
It said more than 95 per cent of transoceanic telecoms and data traffic are carried by undersea, the rest by satellite. -- REUTERS
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