UPDATE 2- Egypt says Internet back to normal in 10 days

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Egypt says Internet back to normal in 10 days

Sat 2 Feb 2008, 16:13 GMT

CAIRO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Internet services in Egypt will not be restored to normal for at least 10 days after two undersea cables were cut earlier this week, causing severe disruptions, the telecommunications ministry said on Saturday.

The cable cuts near Egypt disrupted Web access in parts of the Middle East and Asia.

The ministry said it expected work to repair the cables in the Mediterranean Sea to start on Tuesday and take several days.

"Thus, the disorder in the Internet network would continue for a period that may not be less than 10 days," it said in a statement.

Egypt said about 55 percent of its Internet capacity had been restored. "This is expected to increase gradually," the statement added.

Telecommunications Minister Tarek Kamel said on Thursday it would take at least a week to fix the breaches, which are in segments of two intercontinental cables known as SEA-ME-WE-4 and FLAG.

It was not immediately possible to gauge the impact of the disruption on financial institutions. The Egyptian stock market said the incident had no effect on trading, the Al-Alam al-Youm financial day newspaper reported on Saturday.

Last week some traders said transcations had been slower and that several international trading orders failed to go through. The central bank expressed its frustration with the service and said it would seek alternatives for the banking system if similar disruptions were to happen again.

Egypt has said it did not know if the cables were cut because of bad weather. Storms forced the country to close the northern entrance of the Suez Canal on Tuesday.

On Friday Indian-owned cable network operator FLAG Telecom said a third undersea cable was cut between the United Arab Emirates and Oman in the Persian Gulf. Telecom Egypt, a main Internet service provider in the Arab country, said on Saturday the third cable had no effect on its services.

Kamel, the Egyptian minister, has ordered the state-owned Telecom Egypt to compensate all users with a month's subscription free of charge. Egypt has also said it wants compensation from the undersea cable operators. (Writing by Alaa Shahine, by Matthew Jones)

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[amrssnowangel 0]

I know my SO has net sporadically...12 midnight our times seems to be the best...we can get in a good 2-3 hours...he has his own dsl line..so maybe that helps...and we had a decent morning to...it wasn't till late morning/early afternoon it was to weak for him to log in. I also had horrible time ringing him today from both my cell and my vonage phone...says all international lines into Egypt are busy...so I tried Skype (.15 cents a minute) and THAT worked well...Alhamdolellah...

[cherie4usama 0]

I know my SO has net sporadically...12 midnight our times seems to be the best...we can get in a good 2-3 hours...he has his own dsl line..so maybe that helps...and we had a decent morning to...it wasn't till late morning/early afternoon it was to weak for him to log in. I also had horrible time ringing him today from both my cell and my vonage phone...says all international lines into Egypt are busy...so I tried Skype (.15 cents a minute) and THAT worked well...Alhamdolellah...

My husband hasn't had any internet for a week so i bought some skype credit too and it worked well we got to talk for about 2 hours. I hope it comes soon though.

[amrssnowangel 0]

I know my SO has net sporadically...12 midnight our times seems to be the best...we can get in a good 2-3 hours...he has his own dsl line..so maybe that helps...and we had a decent morning to...it wasn't till late morning/early afternoon it was to weak for him to log in. I also had horrible time ringing him today from both my cell and my vonage phone...says all international lines into Egypt are busy...so I tried Skype (.15 cents a minute) and THAT worked well...Alhamdolellah...

My husband hasn't had any internet for a week so i bought some skype credit too and it worked well we got to talk for about 2 hours. I hope it comes soon though.

Im glad you got to talk..its soo hard being apart let alone when communications fail to..... my SO has had net off and on now..we had it from 12 midnight my time till about 11:15am this morning. Alhamdolellah. Skype is awesome...and u know..its even CHEAPER for him to call you...only .02 Cents a minute if he has connections. My SO calls me 3-5 times a day for short calls and we can skype chat...we prefer skype for our voice and cam chats. Yahoo freezes so much for us..and skype has been much smoother. A ship has arrived today to start repairs on the cut lines...they estimate 10 days and that net will improve over time. I guess because my SO has his own dsl line (not shared with others) he is able to get net a bit more...we are thankful and know we are blessed by this. Good luck to all...

[melly 0]

My husband can only get through during his morning time, which is my night time.

I've missed him alot this weekend, since we usually spend alot of time talking during my weekend days.

I hope it will be mostly back to normal by next weekend.