Myanmar’s internet users should expect delays in establishing connections for a period of about one month, after a disruption occurred with the SEA-ME-WE 3 underwater fiber cable that links the country with international cable networks, Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) reported this week.
 

MPT in a report in the Global New Light of Myanmar said work is being carried out to repair the fault as quickly as possible in coordination with a Singapore-based underwater repair and maintenance team. They expect the work to take about a month.

“The public are informed of Internet connection delay while repair works are in progress,” MPT said.

Myanmar is currently linked with international networks through overland cross-border connections.

MPT says fault happened to the SEA-ME-WE 3 underwater fiber cable at a site located 13 kilometres south off the Irrawaddy Delta’s shore.

The underwater cable connects Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.

Myanmar Telecommunications have announced that the country has been relying on cross-border optical cables for Internet usage since the cable was cut on 22 July.

Chief Engineer Sai Saw Lin Tun from Myanmar Telecommunications Enterprise said that the SEA-ME-WE3 submarine optical cable was disrupted on 22 July at about 5 p.m. He said that the country was now relying on the overland optical cable which meant that the speed of Internet connections was cut in half.