Slashdot Mirror
Internet to Pakistan Goes Down
TwobyTwo writes "According to CNN, a power supply problem on an undersea cable has severed all outside Internet connectivity to Pakistan. Many businesses have been seriously impacted. Repairs will involve some disruption to access from other countries, and are tentatively scheduled for overnight." From the article: "'It's a worst-case scenario. We are literally blank,' said a senior foreign banker who declined to be identified. An official at the Karachi stock exchange said Pakistan's main bourse was unaffected as it had its own internal trading system."
You've been watching the Discovery channel too much. This is not a copper phone line that services Vladivostok, and James Bond doesn't really order shaken martinis.
I cannot believe this kind of thing gets modded up.
Osama Bin Lobster did it!
"...Internet Attacks from the Middle East seemed to grind to a halt today..."
I'm currently in Pakistan, and I have to say that not having any Internet really sucks.
How am I going to read Slashdot now?
It is caused by a break in the SME-3 cable, in the Arabian sea, some 35 km south of Karachi. The problem started out on Monday morning [ reported on a local slashdot-style forum http://tech.one.com.pk/?q=node/87 ]
The repair operation is complex and might take up to two weeks possibly causing disruption in India and UAE as well, who are also connected by the same cable.
SME-3 is Pakistan's primary pipe to the internet and the only backup is through satellite uplink which is providing service to some high ISPs at 10% of regular bandwidth. Call centres are surely going through a real tough time and their business will probably be impacted adversly by this.
-- Binary Finary
I feel a great disturbance in the Internet. As if millions of Pakistani nerds cried out in terror, and were suddenly silienced.
Agreed, it is quite stupid and this should be an eye-opener. Pakistan's infrastructure is lagging behind and in desperate need of an upgrade, however, there aren't many options. There is Iran and Afghanistan to the West which are unstable regions and don't seem like viable options. China in the north but would mean running a cable through the northern regions which are highly unstable (although it seems like the next best option) and then there's India to the right which already has a solid IT infrastructure in place and that's who we are currently routed through.
A secondary fibre-optic connection is being planned, also through India.
Some indigenous efforts are also underway but the costs are too high.
-- Binary Finary
So you know nothing about international intelligence or undersea cables, and yet you feel qualified to comment... If you don't understand what you're talking about - don't comment on it.
:-)
You should not talk without knowing about people's backgrounds and if you had any balls, you would not post things like that as Anonymous Coward. You might be surprised at the backgrounds of many folks in various careers. How they got there is often a convoluted path.
By the way, even though you are an anonymous coward...... Your IP address is 80.43.97.222. You run Mozilla 5.0 as a browser in X11 on Linux. You run Intel hardware. Your ISP is Tiscali UK Limited out of London England. You are in your mid 20s, unemployed though intelligent and you feel just a little disenfranchised.
P.S. The use of yeah? at the end of sentences is common to those in the south of England, and in particular London. Also common in New Zealand. That helped narrow down the IPs associated with hits on the site. There's more, but I've got work to do.
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