CAIRO: Egypt's information highway was moving at a crawl Wednesday due to a failure in the deep water fiber optic cable that travels beneath the Mediterranean Sea, linking Egypt with Europe. There are two separate cables that meet in Alexandria, and, according to officials, they were disconnected at around 6 am, crashing regional internet connections. The cables currently sit one kilometer apart under water. In a press statement, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamel formed an emergency team to work on solving the severe technical problem. The two cables suddenly came apart deep in the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 10 km from Alexandria. One cable belongs to the Flag Global Network and the other to SEA-ME-WE 4, both run in coordination with Telecom Egypt. Ayman Medhat, technical support coordinator at TE Data, told Daily News Egypt that "The cable links the Middle East and Europe . the problem is not affecting Egypt alone, Libya and Algeria were also experiencing problems. "We don't know how long the problem will persist, he added. Concerned internet users attempting to contact their internet service providers were met with a recorded message saying: "We're sorry if you are experiencing technical difficulties. The problem is out of our hands and we are working on solving it. Medhat explained, "As long as the message is playing when you call, that means that nothing has changed. Linkdotnet, one of Egypt's leading internet service providers, could not be reached for comment at press time. The cable cut has caused a partial disconnection in 70 percent of the network across Egypt. It has also affected call centers and some telephone calls made from Egypt to Europe and the United States could not get through. An official from the CASE told Daily News Egypt that trading activities were normal and that they were not affected by the internet problem because transactions are conducted on an internal system. Belton Financial concurred, saying that the day's trading was not hindered by the problem. In the press release, the MCIT said it had not yet identified the cause of the problem. The ministry is consulting international companies and institutions to figure out the cause, which it says could related to unusual weather conditions currently affecting the region. -Additional reporting by Reem Nafie and Sherine Madany
