Internet connection restored after 15 hours
KARACHI- Internet connection with the world resumed on July 8th, 2003, after remaining disconnected for over 15 hours, a Pakistan Telecommunications statement said.
“The Internet bandwidth capacity on Submarine Cable at Karachi became in-operational due to a power problem at the Karachi Terminal of the SME system at 15:40 hours on July 7th, 2003. The fault was redressed at 07:30 hours on July 8th, 2003,” said the PTCL statement.
It said that a PTCL-engineering team immediately rushed to Karachi to assist the technical staff for troubleshooting and restoring the service.
The country lost Internet connectivity due to the failure of Power Feeding Equipment (PFE) linked with undersea optic fibre cable South East Asia, Middle East, Western Europe-3 (SEAMEWE-3), which connects Pakistan with the outside world.
“A team of PTCL engineers immediately reached Karachi to assist the technical staff for troubleshooting and restoration (in collaboration with SEAMEWE-3 Network Operation Centre at Singapore) following the failure, which took place after heavy downpour,” added the PTCL statement.
Currently, the country is connected with a submarine undersea optical fibre, SEAMEWE-3. The SEAMEWE-3 is vulnerable to cuts (accidental and malicious) and international communications from and to Pakistan could be paralysed for several weeks.
The country went through the same experience on April 4, but July 7th, 2003 problem was the worst one so far, Internet service providers (ISPs) say.
The PTCL claimed that it continued efforts together with the SEAMEWE-3 Network Operation Centre to restore the system from other sources.
“The only backup available, Satellite IP connectivity was also disrupted due to heavy downpour and windstorm.
The fault unfortunately took place simultaneously at 18:30 hours at the earth station Dehmandro Karachi (60 degree Intel Satellite),” said the PTCL.
However, the PTCL insisted that only Internet browsing encountered interruptions, while there was no problem with voice trafficking.
Source: The News
Date:7/9/2003
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