Internet services in Qatar that were hit by the submarine cable disruption in the Mediterranean Sea are expected to improve with Qtel offering additional alternative routes. Internet users in Qatar have been experiencing a slowdown in the services over the past two days, as an impact of the cable disruption. Qtel, however, claimed the loss of capacity in Qatar was below 47 percent, thanks to its robust Internet strategy. “Creating crisis and back up procedures for the internet has been a major strategic focus for Qtel over recent years. In addition, the company has helped create private networks for a number of key corporate clients, who have so far reported smooth operations, supported by Qtel enterprise services,” a Qtel statement said yesterday. Adel Al Mutawa, executive director, Group Communications at Qtel told The Peninsula yesterday that the internet services in Qatar were improving as Qtel was successful in offering more alternative routes. According to agency reports, a French ship yesterday took engineers to repair the broken undersea cables that caused severe disruption to telephone and Internet services across the Middle East and Asia. Many operators said communication services had improved as alternative routes had been used to carry calls and Internet information. The France Telecom cable ship Raymond Croze left Seyne-sur-Mer, is expected to be at the scene of the damage, between Sicily and Tunisia tomorrow a spokesman was quoted as saying. Egypt was one of countries worst affected by Friday’s incident, but state news agency, MENA reported that Internet communications were restored to more than half of normal capacity by yesterday. The disruption also affected countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, India, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates, but most reported services returning to normal by yesterday. The cables are jointly owned by several dozen countries http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=December2008&file=Local_News2008122125033.xml

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