Dhiraagu has said its internet customers could face “degraded service” for the next few days as work is undertaken to repair a damaged submarine cable between the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Dhiraagu spokesperson Imjad Jaleel said that “diversity routes” were
now being used by the company to ensure that locally hosted web
services could be accessed today, as it aims to prioritise the
provision of web browsing and e-mail services to customers.
“There should be no problems for locally hosted sites right now,”
Jaleel claimed. “We are looking to make use of diversity routes that
will allow us to prioritise important services such as e-mail and
browsing services for our customers even on sites based
internationally.”
Degraded services started occurring on Wednesday evening. Some business
organisations have expressed concerns that interrupted services were
already having a detrimental impact on local businesses such as those in the
tourism sector that rely on online bookings.
Dhiraagu is one of the country’s largest internet service providers,
dominating the internet and telecommunications sector. Dhiraagu’s main
competitor Wataniya has said it does not currently have any issues with the
provision of its internet services.
Submarine cable
According to Dhiraagu, the problem with its internet service has arisen due
to damage sustained on a section of international submarine cable
located 26 kilometres off the coast of Sri Lanka. The cable is used by
the company to provide broadband services to the country.
Jaleel said the damaged area of cable had been located and a
regionally-based specialised vessel called the Asean Explorer was now
on its way to the affected area to conduct repairs. The vessel is
expected to arrive in the next 24 to 48 hours.
“This has impacted our customers’ access to the internet, it is
estimated that normal services will return in three to four days,”
Jaleel said. “The cable is located 40 metres below the water and this
is the first time that damage like this has taken place on our
network.
Jaleel said the company would not know the exact cause of the damage
to the cable until the Asian Explorer vessel began repairs. However,
he said the damage may been caused by a vessel anchoring in shallow
waters.
“We would like to assure customers that we are presently seeking out
diversity routes and that everyone should be able to access locally
hosted web sites,” he said. “The Asian Explorer vessel that is on its
way now is designed specially to deal with repairs like this.”
Speaking to Minivan News today, the Maldives National Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (MNCCI) Vice President Ismail Asif claimed that
it had received several concerns regarding the impact of internet
connectivity issues on local business.
Asif claimed that the chamber had not received information from Dhiraagu as
yet on the issues affecting local internet service, adding that the
organisaton has itself been experiencing problems with its e-mail.
“We are still awaiting information right now from our members on the
scale of the impact, but almost everything we do relies on e-mails,
even letters we receive are scanned rather than faxed these days,” he
said. “Therefore, we expect there to be a huge impact on businesses.”
In terms of specific vulnerabilities to internet connections, the
MNCCI said that many of the country’s tourism related companies
significantly based their operations online.
“We cannot give the number of websites that are down right now
obviously as the internet situation is hindering our own work,” he
said.
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WWW illiterate local businesses think that owning a dhivehinet or .mv hosted web site is better. The same goes for emails addresses. It is simply not.
Who's worried about to access locally hosted sites? ROFL. That is not what the internet is about.
A technical problem may arise to any company for sure. More importantly, it how honest they are about their statuses.
Dhiraagu uses social media only to promote their products and does not engage with customers for their concerns. Fortunately for the rest of us, social media is a two-way street.
It took them so long for an honest status update.
This will happen and continue to happen. It has happened in other parts of the world. Although the probability of striking an underwater cable in the ocean is low, it's not a neglibible probability.
Cables have been torn up on a much larger scale in other parts of the world. These are very expensive pieces of kit and you cannot easily provide backup facilities as that also adds to millions of dollars.
Just be thankful, that Dhiraagu has at least got A fibre optic cable at all.
We shall have more service providers. WE are being hostage to one monster company who is doing virtual monopoly. see the downside now?
I completlty agree with police guy. Dhiraagu doesnt give a dam bout us or its customers as long as they stay rich and money keeps rolling in thier pockets.
Maldivians should demonstrate against them..Even thier local call rates are being raised without letin its customers know..During this political hell in the country..companies like dhiraagu tend to take great advantage while its customers are blind. This is the reality and truth.
I agree with the guys.. Dhiraagu has being a scavenging the hard urn-ed money from the maldivians for so many years..with the help of Gayoom and his merry men. They are not their to serve the customers.Lets get more competitors to the country.. drive dhiraagu away.