Three times and counting: High speed internet off again
Local internet users have been unable to browse and download since Thursday afternoon – as the fibre optic cable that links Seychelles to the rest of the world has been damaged once again.
“We are connected by the cable via Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. But on Thursday afternoon, some people have sabotaged the cable in Egypt to which the Tanzanians are connected,” explained local telecommunications’ provider Cable and Wireless Seychelles spokesperson, Terry Servina when contacted by this newspaper.
“In fact, the SEAS (Seychelles East Africa Submarine) undersea cable between Seychelles and Dar Es Salaam is intact, since it was not damaged in any way,” Mr. Servina explained. Meanwhile, in a bid to continue providing its clients with crucial internet connection, Cable & Wireless had switched to their back-up link – only to find after a few hours that the link was also down.
“We could not give our clients downloading and browsing access but chose instead to keep the essential services such as the blackberry connections running,” Mr. Servina explained. At the moment, Cable and Wireless’ supplier has made available to the company a fibre optic link –at low capacity. This could largely be to blame for the slow connections and many frustrations by private individuals and companies as well.
“Our suppliers have assured us that they are currently on site, working to fix the problem,” said Mr. Servina. The company said the problem would be fixed by yesterday afternoon.
The fibre optic submarine Cable Systems Ltd (SCS), landed in Seychelles at the end of May 2012. Local telecommunications’ companies Cable and Wireless Seychelles and Airtel are shareholders in the joint venture with the Government of Seychelles. The telecommunications traffic is sent from Seychelles to Dar Es Salaam via the SEAS. Once in Dar Es Salaam, the telecommunication companies can choose from a plethora of service providers with capacity on cables running along the eastern coast of Africa to Europe and the rest of the World.
The superhighway service has been interrupted twice since its introduction into the country. The first time was last year when the SEAS cable was cut by an anchor off the Tanzanian coast and a second time in January when another cable servicing Seychelles was damaged on shore in Egypt.
Source: today.sc 2-16-13