AMMAN - Internet users in the country will experience slower connection to the World Wide Web during the "few" coming days due to breaks in three submarine cables linking Europe and the Middle East.
On Friday morning, the Kingdom's Internet capacity dropped to below 50 per cent from 8:00am until 6:00pm because of the cut in three international routes, Jordan Telecom Group's (JTG) Chief Financial Officer Raslan Diranieh told The Jordan Times over the phone Saturday.
"Internet users in Jordan will experience a 20-25 per cent reduction in speed in light of the breaks, which I personally believe will take two weeks to fix," Diranieh said.
He also said that by Saturday, the JTG was able to increase Internet capacity to more than 70 per cent, adding that it will reach full capacity before the end of the week, as it will resort to alternative routes.
JTG Chief Information Technology and Networks Officer Amer Sunna said the cut occurred in the SMW-3, SMW-4 and FLAG lines, of which the latter two link the Kingdom to the International Internet Network.
The Kingdom also uses two other routes "coming through the King Hussein Bridge and the Sheikh Hussein Bridge", he said.
"When the cut in the submarine cables occurred Friday, the JTG diverted traffic to the other two routes and it increased Internet capacity to more than 70 per cent," said Sunna, adding that Jordan's Internet capacity is still "better" than neighbouring countries.
The disruption reduced Egypt's Internet capacity by about 80 per cent on Friday. Technicians were restoring some capacity by diverting communications traffic through the Red Sea, said a communications ministry official, who asked not to be named, Reuters reported yesterday.
However, it reached 60 per cent capacity Saturday, according to the Associated Press.
Users in the Middle East said Internet service was either non-existent or slow. The gravity of the outage, caused by breaks in cables in the Mediterranean off Italy, varied from area to area and according to the service provider.
The cause of the breaks was not immediately known, according to AP.
Users in the Gulf Arab nations said their connections were much slower than usual and suffered occasional disconnections. Kuwait's telecommunications ministry said late Friday it was trying to secure continued services until the damage to the cables was repaired and asked for users' understanding, Reuters reported.
Citizens complained of the low speed in connecting to the service, especially on Friday.
Lawyer Ahmad Khalifa said it took him almost an hour to send an e-mail on Friday because of the slow Internet connection though he is subscribed to a 1GB Internet connection.
"The Internet was so slow. After waiting for a long time, I gave up. This is annoying. I had to leave the house to fax some important document that I wanted to send via e-mail to some of my clients," the lawyer told The Jordan Times on Saturday.
Computer instructor Mahmoud Hajj, who also has a 1GB Internet connection at home, said the slow Internet connection ruined his plans for Friday.
"I was planning a Halo3, a network game, with my friends who gathered at my house for playing the game. The Internet was so slow that we gave up and ended up playing cards," Hajj said.
"The slow connection deprived me and my friends from practising our Friday pastime activity," he said.
Also yesterday, Diranieh said as the end of month is approaching, Internet users usually witness a slower Internet connection, especially those who have limited downloads.
"Usually by the end of the month, Internet subscribers use the limit-up of their downloads and automatically the speed gets slower," said Diranieh, adding that 90 per cent of the offers have limitations to downloads.
By Mohammad Ghazal
© Jordan Times 2008
