THE YEAR 2008 will be remembered for many things, among them financial turmoil and political upheaval for many countries, but for millions of Internet users, the thing that will be remembered is the slowdown and loss of connectivity due to damage to the international communications cables Flag and Seamewe 4 on Jan 30.
According to Eric Schoonover, a senior research analyst for New York-based telecommunications market research and consulting firm TeleGeography, the two undersea cables in the Mediterranean accounted up to 75% of the Internet capacity connecting Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries to Europe.