Severed Cables Cut Egypt's Internet Access Once Again
Friday, December 19, 2008
AP
Feb. 1: An empty Internet cafe in Cairo, Egypt, during an earlier Internet outage.
Feb. 1: An empty Internet cafe in Cairo, Egypt, during an earlier Internet outage.
CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt's communications ministry says Internet cables in the Mediterranean Sea have been cut, causing massive Internet outages.
The ministry says three Internet cables running through the Mediterranean were cut Friday morning. Throughout the country the Internet is almost completely down or working sporadically.
The ministry says it will take "several days" for cables to be repaired and is trying to switch Egypt's Internet to an alternative route.
It is the second large-scale Internet outage in Egypt this year. Undersea cables were also damaged in January, causing outages in the Mideast and India.
Yemen and Sudan were also having phone and Internet difficulties Friday, but it was unclear if it was connected to the outage.
