KUWAIT CITY, Dec 19: Internet service in Kuwait was disrupted Friday from 11.15 am as three major fiber cables were cut in the Mediterranean Sea, Fast Telecommunication Com-pany told the Arab Times. Meanwhile, Shaheed Al-Sateeh, Manager at Reliance Globalcom, speaking to agencies said “The three cables linking Egypt and Sicily, failed for yet unknown reason. We know that three cables have been cut. They cover all the Middle East, India and other countries. “We have no more information. A ship has been sent out to locate the place where the cables were cut,” he added.

Egypt’s state news agency reported that the cuts happened off the coast of Sicily at 10 am GMT on Friday. Services are being rerouted to backup cables and satellite to compensate for the failures. The services are expected to improve by around 0330 GMT on Saturday, the agency added. In January, five cables in the Middle East and Europe were cut, causing Internet failures in the region.

The Egyptian ministry says it will take “several days” for cables to be repaired and is trying to switch Egypt’s Internet to an alternative route. It was the second large-scale Internet outage in Egypt this year. Undersea cables were also damaged in January, causing outages in the Mideast and India. Yemen and Sudan were also having phone and Internet difficulties Friday, but it was unclear if it was connected to the outage.

Source: Arab Times