Telecoms16.03.2012

EASSy traffic routing back to normal next week

The SMW3 cut in the Red Sea will be repaired on March 18th, which means that EASSy traffic will be back to its normal routing next week. This is word from Chris Wood, chairman of the EASSy management committee.

Wood told MyBroadband that due to the collapsed loop design of EASSy, and the fact that the cut occurred to the north of Djibouti, the cut to the EASSy cable is not affecting traffic into and out of East and southern Africa.

The EASSy Management Committee confirmed at the end of February that the EASSy cable was cut on 17 February 2012 at 14:27. The cut occurred in the Red Sea between the EASSy landing stations at Port Sudan and Djibouti.

The impact of the EASSy cable cut was aggravated by cuts on two other cable systems in the same area – SMW3 and EIG.

The cut is believed to have been caused by the anchor of a cargo ship being dragged more than 150km along the sea bed.

EASSy

EASSy

The impact of the cable cut was minimized by both EASSy’s “collapsed ring” protection mechanism and the fact that many service providers have bandwidth on other cables like SAT-3 and SEACOM.

“The vast majority of EASSy’s traffic interconnects at Djibouti, so most customers have not felt the impact of this cut,” said the EASSy Management Committee.

On 29 February 2012 the EASSy Management Committee said that the repair to EASSy will be completed within 15-20 days. There was however a warning that the actual repair date will depend on a variety of factors, including sea and weather conditions.

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