The two cable breaks last week put massive pressure on Internet and telecom communications in the Middle East and South East Asia. Could it get any worse? Apparently so. A third cable break, forinstance. And that’s exactly what happened. With repairs on the first breaks not due to begin until tomorrow, another one, known as the Falcon cable, has snapped, according to theBBC. "The situation is critical for us in terms of congestion," Omar Sultan, chief executive of Dubai’s ISP DU,told AP. It’s meant that communications have had to be rerouted around the globe, but the big problem has been Internet access. In areas of the MiddleEast there was a 70% disruption, while the first break caused a 60% disruption in India. The new break means there’s only one, older cable connecting the Middle East and Europe. It could be several more days before Middle Eastern Internet service is back to normal, although India was at 80% capacity by the end of last week.
Tag Archive: MiddleEast
Google Growing In Europe
There was a time, and not too long ago, when Google was the underdog, and everyone cheered for it. Then it became huge, the dominant force in online search, andsuddenly it was a bad guy, gobbling up other companies and finding legal difficulties over data retention. It became another big, bad American company. And now it’s trying to change thatimage, at least in Europe. Google has announced plans to drastically increase the number of engineers it employs in Europe. Currently the company has around 7,000 engineers in total, with only 500 ofthose in Europe. Under new plans, the company wants to have about as many engineers in Europe as it does in the US, to create a cohesive European presence and not be seen as an outsider. Nelson Mattos, newly appointed as the head of engineering in Europe for Google, told the Financial Times, “I aim to grow the EMEA [Europe, MiddleEast and Africa] engineering team as big as the one in North America. This is why I joined.” According to a report in that newspaper, the European expansion is likely to be rapid, overthe next three years, which is a lot faster than Google’s American growth. Whether Google really can change its image in Europe remains to be seen, of course. But considering thatit’s only had an engineering presence there for three years and already has offices in 12 European countries, it probably won’t be for want of trying.
New LG Qiblah Phone Points To Mecca
LG’s F7100 model is equipped with more upgraded functions compared to the initial Mecca indicator phone launched last year. Thus, LG Electronics is pushing to further strengthen itsregion-friendly marketing.
LG Electronics has introduced to the market the Qiblah phone (model:LG-F7100) which comes complete with embedded compass, direction indication and prayer time alarm (Azan feature), usable in 500cities worldwide. LG Electronics has launched the Mecca indicator phone in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle East nations, as well as North African nations. LGE held a launching ceremony inDubai, on July 20th.
