Indian Internet download speed has been significantly slowed due to a submarine cable disruption off the coast of Egypt. The five cables thought to have been affected by the recent disruption, include the South East Asia-Middle, East-Western Europe 4 (SMW-4), India Middle, East-Western Europe (I-ME-WE) and Europe India Gateway (EIG) systems.
The International consortium of operators, that is responsible for managing the cables in the area, are in the process of doing their best to rectify the situation as swiftly as possible but it is being said that the repairs will most likely take a few days at least.
The vital cable breaks has impacted Internet traffic across many areas besides India, that includes a large area of the Middle East and North Africa as well. The impact of the cut-down is mostly being felt by Indian web users, who are experiencing slow download and buffer speeds, that need to be sorted at the earliest.
On 27 March, BBC had reported that three men were arrested off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt for attempting to deliberately damage, and possibly cut, the undersea cable. Although it has not been confirmed if these two events are linked, the relevant authorities are said to be holding investigations into the issue.