GO has got its Internet and data services running again after the fault which developed in its undersea cable to Sicily on Friday, although services are not running at full capacity. Some users have reported internet services as being slow.
Services were transferred by GO to the Vodafone submarine cable in line with a pre-existing connectivity agreement.
A GO spokesman said it had not yet been established what caused this failure – and the failure of three major undersea cables in the same general area. Those three cables carried 75 percent of Internet and other traffic from the US and Europe to the Middle East and Asia.
The switchover to the Vodafone cable means that Malta is less affected than many other countries, but it is now relying on just one cable for most of its international links.
“Repairs will take days, if not weeks is view of the damage also caused to the other cables,” the GO spokesman said.
Reuters has also reported that there is no timeframe for when communications will be restored, with sea conditions in the Mediterranean being as important a factor as the availability of repair teams.
France Telecom SA has said its major cable to the Middle East should be back to normal by December 31.
The disruption has reduced Egypt's Internet capacity by about 80 percent. Technicians were restoring some capacity by diverting communications traffic through the Red Sea, said a Communications Ministry official.
In Pakistan, Internet service provider Micronet Broadband said its customers were facing degraded Internet services because of "issues" on the SMW-3, SMW-4 and FLAG lines. Micronet engineer Wajahat Basharat said Internet traffic was slow and some was being diverted to other routes.
Etislat, the largest of two telecom firms in the United Arab Emirates, said it was using alternative routes to ensure continuity of service.
Kuwait's Telecommunications Ministry said it was trying to secure continued services until the damage to the cables was repaired and asked for users' understanding.
The International Cable Protection Committee, an association of submarine cable operators, said it was aware of multiple submarine cable that may be affecting the speed of Internet communications on some routes.
Officials with AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications, the two largest US-based carriers, said that some customers in the Middle East had lost all service, while others were experiencing partial disruptions on Internet connections.
Verizon had rerouted some of its traffic by sending it across the Atlantic, then the United States, across the Pacific, and on to the Middle East.