Internet Service

Qtel Working Hard to Minimize Interruption during Marine Cable Repairs

Some Internet Service Disruption Anticipated Until April 27 Following Cable Break in the Mediterranean Sea

Doha, Qatar

Repairs to a major Internet service cable in the Mediterranean Sea will cause some disruption to services in Qatar starting from 24 April, Qtel announced today, but processes are in place to minimise the inconvenience faced by customers.

The cable break – which occurred between Egypt and Italy – has impacted services levels across the region and into Southeast Asia, although Qtel has been able to minimize disruption within Qatar by deploying additional capacity on other marine cables and other paths.

With a team from the Mediterranean Marine Cable Consortium set to arrive at the site of the break on 24 April, Qtel is anticipating some disruption to Internet services during the repair. This could result in slower Internet performance for some customers, particularly on sites that use a significant amount of bandwidth, such as peer-to-peer sharing sites.

The repair process is expected to be completed by 27 April 2010.

During the repairs, the Qtel team will be working hard to ensure the continuity of essential communication services. This will include rate-shaping streaming applications, in order to ensure optimized browsing capacity on the internet.

During working hours, capacity being provided to some social streaming sites – such as the popular video-sharing website YouTube – will be limited in order to provide maximum capacity to business applications, essential communication services and e-mail. As soon as repairs are completed, this restriction will be fully lifted.

Corporate customers can also contact their account managers for advice on ensuring optimum performance during the repair process.