Go's internet service failure on Thursday was part of a massive fault to Mediterranean submarine cables that affected communications across Europe and even the Middle East.

International agencies like Bloomberg could not say how long it would take for them to restore their connection but a spokesman for telecoms company Go said he hoped it would be a matter of days.

Meanwhile, until the cables are restored, Go says it is working on restoring its services with the help of its competitor, Vodafone. At the time of writing the situation had not been restored to normal but engineers were working on the problem round the clock.

Go said last night that, as a result of the contingency planning agreement with Vodafone, the majority of services have been restored to normal. On Thursday at about 6.30 p.m. Go reported a "major fault" in an international submarine fibre-optic cable linking Malta to Sicily.

The fault affected thousands of broadband subscribers whose internet was down for hours on end. Even phone communications were affected but they were restored soon afterwards.

The Malta Communication's Authority said it was pleased to see the "utmost cooperation between" Vodafone and Go.

The Go spokesman said the fault in the cable has been localised underwater 120 kilometres of cable away from Catania. The submarine cable is 245 kilometres in length between Catania and St George's Bay.

The spokesman also confirmed that the failure suffered by Go was part of a larger one that affected internet and telephone communications between the Middle East and Europe.

This was caused by submarine cable failures between Italy and Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea. Three submarine cable systems linking Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe were affected, Bloomberg reported. The cause of the damage is not yet known.

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