Cairo: Internet outages disrupted business and personal usage across a wide swathe of the Middle East on Wednesday after an undersea cable in the Mediterranean was damaged, government officials and Internet service providers said.
In Cairo, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said the cut in the international communications cable had led to a partial disruption of Internet services and other telecommunications across much of Egypt.
At the Egyptian stock market, IT department engineer Mahmoud Mansour said the disruptions did not affect the operations at the exchange.
Emergency teams were quickly trying to find alternative routes, including by satellites, to end the disruptions, said Minister Tariq Kamel. But service was still slow or nonexistent by late afternoon on Wednesday.
Internet service also was disrupted in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf, which markets itself as a top business and luxury tourist hub. Both Internet service providers was affected and one was completely down in the morning. DU restored Internet service by the afternoon although browsing was very slow.
The other carrier, Etislat, and DU said international telephone service was also affected by the cable break.
DU attributed the disruption to a fault in "two international cable systems" in the Mediterranean Sea but gave no details.
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