CAIRO: Services on Egypt's three telecom operators were disrupted in parts of Alexandria on Tuesday afternoon, and some users in Cairo experienced slower internet connections due to “downtime” in a submarine cable. Vodafone Egypt said some users are continuing to face slight problems due to damage in Telecom Egypt's cables which began in central Cairo. "Vodafone, along with the country's three telecom providers has been affected by a damage in one of Telecom Egypt's fiber cables in a wire going from the Ramsis Communications Center all the way to Sadat City," said Khaled Hegazy, Vodafone's external affairs director. "This has affected and continues to affect communications especially in parts of Alexandria and Suez governorates,” he said. "We have not been told when it will be fixed yet, it is in the hands of Telecom Egypt. Right now it is still slightly affecting some connections," he added. On its Twitter account, Etisalat Misr said, “Customers on all three Egyptian mobile operators may currently face connection issues with voice, mobile internet, and/or BlackBerry services as a result of a damaged fiber cable from TE Data. “The issue is currently under investigation and services will be restored as soon as possible.” According to MyBroadband, the largest IT website in South Africa, the problem was attributed to downtime experienced by the pan-African ICT enabler SEACOM. The company which is a privately funded venture that owns and operates a submarine fiber-optic cable connecting communication carriers in south and east Africa, affected Mobinil, Vodafone, and Etisalat networks across parts of Alexandria and Suez. “We are seeing some problems in our telecom towers which are affecting only certain parts like Abu Qir district or Maamoura, for example,” a Mobinil customer service representative told Daily News Egypt. “Other than that, our clients have been calling us as usual.” A Vodafone customer representative also confirmed that some of their users were experiencing downtime in parts of Alexandria due to “minor technical difficulties.” According to SEACOM, the problems began at around 08:30 am on Tuesday, and were resolved at approximately 09:40. “SEACOM's partner network experienced a terrestrial fiber cut between Alexandria and the Suez this morning 16th August from 06:31GMT. All links are back up as of 07:35GMT. Total downtime was 1hr 4 mins,” the company was quoted as saying in an official statement.
