Dubai, Feb 3 (IANS) Residences and offices in the United Arab Emirates face up to two weeks of Internet and international call disruption following damage to two undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea late last week.
Telecom services provider Etisalat said Sunday it has been informed by India-based Flag Telecom, operator of one of the cables, Flag Europe-Asia, that it will take at least two weeks to repair.
Flag is part of Reliance Communications. The operator of the other cable, Sea-ME-We-4, has said that it would carry out repair work Feb 8.
Large areas in the Gulf plunged into Internet and telephone blackout after the two intercontinental cables were damaged off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt last Wednesday.
The situation got worse when another cable, Falcon, 56 km off Dubai on the UAE-Oman segment, also operated by Flag, was damaged Friday.
Though the third damage did not affect Etisalat, it disrupted the services of UAE’s other telecom services provider, Du.
According to local media reports, Flag has said that a repair ship would arrive at the location of the third damaged cable in the next few days, but so far bad weather has prevented the vessel from setting off from Abu Dhabi port.
In message posted on its website, Flag has stated that that it has arranged part of the restoration capacity via terrestrial route between the landing stations in Al Khobar and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Additional capacity was being restored on alternative routes for customers who have requested ad hoc restoration service.