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Net speed improves

DUBAI — After nearly two months of disruptions in Internet speed, Etisalat customers can now heave a sigh of relief, with the broadband internet access speed enhanced as of today.

Abdulla Hashim, Senior Manager, eCompany, told Khaleej Times that the disruption, which was related to international links, affected traffic for applications like gaming and peer-to-peer networks, but the problem has been resolved.

"This problem with the international links started on April 17 due to breakdown of some international Internet links outside the UAE. The restoration of these links was expected to be completed yesterday, which would facilitate smooth functioning of broadband internet services," he said.

To cope with the increasing internet traffic, Etisalat is planning to commission additional Internet capacity shortly to further boost the bandwidth of the country.

Many users throughout the emirates were affected by this disruption.

Benjamin Harris, a consultant working in Dubai Media City, said the Internet speed was slow throughout the month of May which affected his work considerably. "At first, I thought it was one of those situations where the ISP is not be blamed. But later, I had considerable difficulty with certain applications and the speed would just not improve," he said.

Hashim assured Etisalat customers that the problem had been identified and was being looked into to avoid recurrence of the problem. "At the time of disruption, Etisalat engineers prioritised Internet traffic to ensure that the effects on business communication and other critical Internet functions were kept to the minimum," he said.

As of 2004, Etisalat had 15 STM1 Internet links. The telecommunications provider had planned to add two additional links in April bringing the total to 17, but this could not be done due to the disruption in international links.

"When Etisalat realised that the problem could not be solved soon, the corporation moved swiftly and commissioned two new STM1 Internet links from another service provider to replace the two broken links. In case such a problem occurs again, the effect of such disruptions in the future will be minimised due to the additional capacity that Etisalat is putting in place," Hashim said.

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