Pakistan can be part of Trans-Asian European cable
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan could be part of the existing TAE (Trans-Asian European) cable or any other consortium being planned by Azerbaijan in the telecommunication sector.

Talking with Azerbaijan’s Minister of Communication and Information Technologies Ali Abasov Pakistan’s Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said Pakistan could be part of the existing TAE (Trans-Asian European) cable or any other consortium being planned by Azerbaijan but the usage rates being charged for traffic on TAE were expensive for the operators which would instead prefer using the two submarine cables Pakistan was already linked to.

He said Pakistan could also serve as a corridor for central Asian region because of its reliable and cheaper international connectivity. He said Pakistan was about to be linked with India through optic fibre while two additional submarine cables were also being brought to Pakistan within the next six months from UAE by Wateen and Orascom groups respectively.

Pakistan agreed to provide technical input and expertise to Azerbaijan to help introduce deregulation in the monopolistic telecom sector of the Central Asian state.

Labels: fibre optic, Infrastructure

- posted @ Saturday, February 25, 2006

 
SMW3 dead again. SMW4 to the rescue.
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Undersea fibre optic cable is damaged
From Azfar-ul-Ashfaque

23 February 2006


KARACHI — Pakistan's first undersea fibre optic cable, Seamewe-3, was damaged yesterday morning causing interruption in the country's Internet and voice traffic. However, there was no breakdown in any part of the country, as the recently-commissioned submarine cable, Seamewe-4, was fully operational.

“At about 8:30am, a fault developed in the Semewe-3 and within no time the internet and other traffic shifted automatically to Seamewe-4. Our engineers located the fault in between Gulbai and Paracha Chowk areas. They are working to repair the fault and everything will be normalised by night,” said a spokesman of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).

He claimed that neither any breakdown in terms of Internet traffic occurred nor there was any congestion in voice or internet traffic, as Pakistan has another operational link Seamewe-4, which connects the country with the world.

The cable got damaged due to development work being carried out at Lyari Expressway and officials believed that the use of heavy machinery and shovels damaged the cable.

Besides having a limited satellite backup, Pakistan has two undersea fibre optic links.

Labels: Infrastructure

- posted @ Friday, February 24, 2006