Recent Slow Internet Due to Submarine Cables Failure

ISPs’ umbrella association ISPAN confirms the submarine cables failure is behind slow internet users witnessed lately in Nepal. Lately, users witnessed a degraded internet experience on apps and the web without realizing the cause. Now, the Association has informed it’s coming from under-sea-cables issue beyond our borders.

Releasing a press note today, the Association (Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal) informed that Nepali ISPs’ upstream providers Airtel, Tata, and Sify have observed submarine cable faults on the sub-sea portion of the Mumbai-Gulf route. It means the situation is affecting the internet traffic sent via Mumbai to Europe, the Middle East, and the USA. Meanwhile, these upstream providers have resorted to alternative routes to address the crisis. This has possibly increased “latency packet drops”. It means it is taking more time for the ISPs to get their contents from the server. Besides, they are also facing issues of not receiving the content at all from the servers. ISPAN informed that under-sea cable failers are behind the deteriorated internet connection lately.  

Related: Nepal’s Internet Bandwidth Touches 1 Tbps Mark

Submarine Cables Issue Solution Still Days Ahead

Besides, the situation could sustain many days ahead. The faults are complex in nature and the Indian upstream providers have said fixing it could take a few weeks. The repair work would depend on a cable ship, weather conditions in open water, and work permit availability.  

ISPAN says it’s in continuous touch with the upstream providers over the issue and expects the solution soon.

Several users complained of a drop in internet performance on social media apps and the web lately. Either the contents on the internet were not downloading or running at a ridiculously slow speed. Users noticed the issue on social media apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp and while downloading files from the web.

Also read: Why don’t we get the Internet speed as promised by ISPs?

As per the notice, we could continue facing this issue for many days ahead. Now, we can only hope that the concerned parties fix the issue and restore the internet soon for millions of internet users in the region.

Have you witnessed slow internet performance on any apps or downloading files lately? Do share with us in the comments below.