Cable damage only trivial: Indosat

Cable damage only trivial: Indosat

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned telecommunication company PT Indosat
stated that the damage to the world's longest undersea cable
network had only slightly affected the telecommunication service
in the country.

Company spokesman Radjamin Nasution said on Wednesday that the
telecommunication service had been disrupted for about an hour
after the 39,000 kilometer cable network, called SEA-ME-WE 3
(South East Asia, Middle East to Western Europe), broke at 10:24
a.m. on Tuesday.

He said Indosat quickly switched its service to another cable
network called SEA-ME-WE 2 which also links the three regions, as
well the APCN (Asia Pacific Cable Network).

"In one hour, all services were switched to the other cables
which still work properly," Nasution was quoted by Detikcom as
saying.

He added the company had also used satellite transmission to
continue its service.

He denied the foreign press reports that the incident had
caused a significant impact on Indosat's service, saying the
impact was "less than 20 percent."

It was not clear what caused Monday's break in a part of the
cable lying 60 km off the coast of Singapore in Indonesian
waters.

In Singapore, Deutsche Presse Agentur said local telecom
operators Singapore Telecom, StarHub and M1, and Internet service
provider Pacific Internet said the damaged cable had not
disrupted any of their services.

"Our customers are not affected because SingTel uses a
diversity of cables," said Ivan Tan, director of corporate
communications.

He said phone and Internet traffic had been diverted to
another cable, the APCN, which links Singapore to Australia.

It was "still too early to say" how long it will take to
repair the damage, Tan said, adding that approval was needed from
the Indonesian authorities.

The damaged cable, which only became operational late last
year, severely disrupted communication in Australia. (jsk)