UK escapes internet cable disruption
Updated on 20 December 2008
The disruption of phone and internet communications between Europe and Asia caused by the severing of a series of underwater cables beneath the Mediterranean Sea has had a minimal affect on the UK, BT said.
At least three cables have been cut in the area between Sicily and Tunisia causing problems throughout the Middle East and parts of Asia.
But a spokesman for BT said UK customers should be experiencing very few difficulties.
He said BT shared capacity for international traffic with other carriers but all firms were using diversions through other international routes.
Calls to Australasia and some parts of Asia go via satellite, he stressed.
"Looking at it, it's business as usual," he said. "Alternative routes are in place and customers shouldn't notice any difference."
France Telecom said it had send a maintenance vessel to help with repairs to the Sea-Me-We 4, Sea-Me-We 3 and FLAG cables this morning.
In a statement, it said engineers still do not know what caused the damage but, according to some reports, there has been seismic activity in the Malta area.
Despite most internet traffic between Europe and Asia being routed through the USA, the firm said: "Traffic from Europe to the Near East and Asia is interrupted to a greater or lesser extent."
France Telecom said the Sea-Me-We 4 cable could be operating by Christmas Day and the situation should be back to normal by the New Year.
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