By Khetam Malkawi

AMMAN - Internet users in the Kingdom and elsewhere in the region are expected to continue experiencing slower services as repair teams continue their attempts to fix cut cables in the Mediterranean.

Raslan Diranieh, chief financial officer of the Jordan Telecom Group (JTG), said that a few hours after SMW-4 Internet cable which links the Kingdom to the International Internet Network was fixed, it experienced another cut on Saturday.

“The mother company was supposed to complete repairing SMW-3 and SMW-4 on Saturday… but SMW-4, which is one of the Jordan’s main providers, was broken again,” Diranieh told The Jordan Times, adding that JTG has received no further information on when the line would be refixed.

Internet users in the country have experienced slower connection to the World Wide Web over the past eight days due to breaks in three submarine cables linking Europe and the Middle East.

The cut occurred in the SMW-3, SMW-4 and FLAG lines, the latter two of which link the Kingdom to the global network.

“Although Internet capacity dropped to below 25-30 per cent in the countries connected to the three damaged lines, we managed to increase the speed and capacity by 70-75 per cent,” Diranieh said, adding that the situation will remain the same until SMW-4 is repaired.

He explained that JTG was ready with a backup plan to avoid any considerable decrease in capacity during emergencies. The contingency plan was adopted following the previous cut in the cables last February, when five cables linking Europe and the region experienced damage.

“In case of any disruption, we use Called Redundancy and Emergency Roots,” Diranieh said.

The backup cables come through the King Hussein Bridge and the Sheikh Hussein Bridge.

According to Diranieh, when the cuts in the submarine cables occurred eight days ago, the JTG diverted traffic to the other two routes and it increased Internet capacity to more convenient levels. Diranieh said the third cable FLAG is due to be fixed by the end of this month.

“Until the submarine cables are fixed, subscribers will suffer a drop in speed and capacity, especially those with limited downloads according to the capacity of their subscription,” he added.