Undersea Cable Develops Fault (UPDATED)

(Islamabad, Pakistan) A fault on an undersea fiber optic telecommunications cable has dramatically affected Pakistan's data and Internet connections with the rest of the world. It's anticipated that services will be disrupted at least through this coming weekend.

From the Times of Oman:

The cable developed a fault late on Monday, cutting the country's international data links, including the Internet, and causing chaos for businesses across the country. Satellite back-up systems were brought on-stream on Wednesday, restoring some Internet access.

"Data connectivity will not be as fast as it normally is but we've provided satellite back-up," said Mashkoor Hussain, vice president of operations at Pakistan Telecommunication Co. Ltd., which operates the data link. Telephone links had not been affected, he said.

"Two satellite back-up systems have been provided from 9 a.m. (0400 GMT) to ensure that banks and other businesses like airline ticketing can be provided with Internet data facilities as normal as possible," he said.

Hussain said an attempt to repair the cable -- Pakistan's sole international cable Internet link -- early on Wednesday had failed.

A repair ship has been dispatched from Dubai and should reach the cable location by tomorrow afternoon. Repairs are estimated to take two days.

[Update 7/3/05] (Karachi, Pakistan) Yesterday afternoon, a repair ship owned by E-Marine, a submarine cable company based in the United Arab Emirates, arrived in Pakistan and began sonic testing to locate the defective portion of the undersea cable. According to Junaid Khan, president of the Pakistan Telecommunications Company (PTCL), testing to locate the fault and its repair would be cumbersome and time-consuming.

"The fibre-optic cable is lying at the bottom of the sea. Sonic testing will enable the engineers working on the ship to localize the fault. Their work is hampered by the sea, which is very rough these days. Once they have traced the fault, they will pull up the cable from the seabed. They will repair the defective portion of the cable or replace it completely according to the magnitude of the defect," he [Khan] explained.

The fault developed late on June 27 and is believed to be about 50 kilometers off the coast of Karachi. Pakistan’s Internet and other telecom links with the rest of the world were lost because of the fault in the SEAMEWE-3 Cable (South East Asia, Middle East and Western Europe-3). Mashkoor Hussain, the senior executive vice president of the PTCL, stated that:

"[A]s alternates the PTCL had acquired 100-megabyte (MB) space on satellite and further 100 MB space had been arranged to facilitate Internet use."

A few hundred megabytes of emergency capability won't put the airlines, banks, and the Karachi Stock Exchange back to normal. Notably, this current interruption of service is the fourth experienced by Pakistan in two years, occurring twice in 2003 and in April this year.

The cause of the cable failure is unknown at present. It is apparent that the loss of signal resulted from a mechanical breakdown of the cable for some reason. It could be attributed to a defect in material, shoddy workmanship or an externally applied force such as an earthquake. President Khan of PTCL has stated that the company doesn't intend to sue for damages, but he may change his mind if he discovers that the cable PTCL uses is defective. Insurance companies have a tendency to encourage such action.

All in all, it looks like it will take, as a minimum, a few more days before full service is restored.