Source: ArabianBusiness 29 April 2010
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Originally Etisalat said on Tuesday that it expected the work to be completed by Friday April 30.(supplied)Repair work on a damaged Mediterranean Sea cable, which had caused internet problems in the UAE, has been completed and internet services in the UAE have returned to normal, according to telecoms company Etisalat.
“Etisalat announced today that the cable repairs on the submarine cable (SE-ME-WE-4) have been completed and the Internet services have been fully restored. Etisalat has re-routed the internet traffic to the submarine cable (SE-ME-WE-4) that has now been completely restored,” the company said in a statement issued Thursday.
“Etisalat customers did not face major slowdowns in Internet browsing owing to its robust network with multiple redundant links to major global Internet hubs in Asia, Europe, and USA,” it continued.
“Etisalat’s network has been so designed to avoid disruption of Internet traffic during such an eventuality. Etisalat has invested heavily in building a robust network with multiple redundant links to major global Internet hubs in Asia, Europe, and USA, so that the traffic can be re-routed to ensure that Internet services can remain operational at reasonable speeds in the UAE.”
Graham Nonweiler, group managing director of global telecoms specialists Nonweiler Associates, which monitors global internet cable connectivity around the world, confirmed that the SMW4 cable lit up early on Thursday morning and began operating again.
Originally Etisalat said on Tuesday that it expected the work to be completed by Friday April 30.
Showing posts with label Etisalat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Etisalat. Show all posts
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
UAE internet woes to continue until Friday
Source: ArabianBusiness 27 April 2010
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Repair work is ongoing on the undersea cable, UAE telco Etisalat has confirmed. Repair work to the damaged Mediterranean Sea cable, which has caused internet problems in the UAE, will affect services until at least Friday.
And while UAE telecoms giant Etisalat has said it expects the work to be completed by April 30, a leading analyst has estimated a complete restoration of service could take until late on Sunday May 2.
The work was originally scheduled to be completed on April 20, according to rival telco du. A second deadline was set for April 27, however the Etisalat confirmed a new delay due to bad weather.
“The management committee of the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable which suffered damage in the Mediterranean Sea last week, has updated its customers on the status of repairs,” UAE-telecoms giant Etisalat said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The cable ship tasked with repairing the cable arrived on April 24 and started the repair process on April 25,” the statement continued. “A delay was experienced in this process caused by bad weather. It is now expected that the repairs will be completed on April 30 and Internet normalisation within the UAE will be seen immediately afterwards.”
However Graham Nonweiler, group managing director of global telecoms specialists Nonweiler Associates, which monitors global internet cable connectivity around the world, said that “the current best estimate for complete restoration of normal service on SMW4 is late afternoon UAE time Sunday 2nd May.”
Nonweiler added that when repairs started on Sunday April 25 the entire European section of the cable, from Egypt to France, was switched off and “this is why connectivity in the UAE took a nosedive on Sunday afternoon and has progressively got worse since then”.
He added that at present “Etisalat's broadband customers are being routed Eastwards across the Pacific in to the US, and onwards to Europe as needed. This has placed additional loading on those routes, so they too are now saturated.”
Etisalat’s statement added that it “is continuously monitoring the situation and has provisioned more capacity across different cable systems to compensate for the lost cable fibers”.
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Repair work is ongoing on the undersea cable, UAE telco Etisalat has confirmed. Repair work to the damaged Mediterranean Sea cable, which has caused internet problems in the UAE, will affect services until at least Friday.
And while UAE telecoms giant Etisalat has said it expects the work to be completed by April 30, a leading analyst has estimated a complete restoration of service could take until late on Sunday May 2.
The work was originally scheduled to be completed on April 20, according to rival telco du. A second deadline was set for April 27, however the Etisalat confirmed a new delay due to bad weather.
“The management committee of the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable which suffered damage in the Mediterranean Sea last week, has updated its customers on the status of repairs,” UAE-telecoms giant Etisalat said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The cable ship tasked with repairing the cable arrived on April 24 and started the repair process on April 25,” the statement continued. “A delay was experienced in this process caused by bad weather. It is now expected that the repairs will be completed on April 30 and Internet normalisation within the UAE will be seen immediately afterwards.”
However Graham Nonweiler, group managing director of global telecoms specialists Nonweiler Associates, which monitors global internet cable connectivity around the world, said that “the current best estimate for complete restoration of normal service on SMW4 is late afternoon UAE time Sunday 2nd May.”
Nonweiler added that when repairs started on Sunday April 25 the entire European section of the cable, from Egypt to France, was switched off and “this is why connectivity in the UAE took a nosedive on Sunday afternoon and has progressively got worse since then”.
He added that at present “Etisalat's broadband customers are being routed Eastwards across the Pacific in to the US, and onwards to Europe as needed. This has placed additional loading on those routes, so they too are now saturated.”
Etisalat’s statement added that it “is continuously monitoring the situation and has provisioned more capacity across different cable systems to compensate for the lost cable fibers”.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Etisalat BlackBerry patch designed for surveillance
From ArabianBusiness.com 14 July 09
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The battery-sapping "performance patch" that Etisalat sent to its BlackBerry subscribers over the last few days was designed to give the UAE operator the ability to read its customers emails and text messages, a Qatar-based software expert told CommsMEA yesterday.
Last week, Etisalat told its 100,000 BlackBerry subscribers that a "performance enhancement patch" would be sent to them to "provide the best BlackBerry service and ultimate experience". But users who downloaded the software complained of dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance of their devices.
Nigel Gourlay, a Doha-based Sun-certified Java programmer who has been developing open source software for 15 years, analysed the patch after it was posted on BlackBerry’s community support forum and he said that once installed, it potentially gives Etisalat the power to view all emails and text messages sent from the BlackBerry.
“I don’t think it’s been designed for a large scale deployment,” he said. “They have released it as an upgrade across all UAE BlackBerry handsets, all of which have tried to phone home to this one registration server at the same time, and that has effectively brought the server to its knees. When the BlackBerry cannot register itself, it tries again and this causes the battery drain.”
Gourlay pointed out that by default the system is turned off and when it installs the only message that is sent is an initial registration message, and that later on, Etisalat could turn on the systems “one by one”.
Once installed, one of the possible commands that can be sent to the device is "start", which would then cause any subsequent message to be forwarded to an Etisalat website.
Gourlay said the patch was stamped with “SS8.com”, the name of a US-based software developer that describes itself as an electronic surveillance solutions company that develops products that “allow intelligence agencies to recognise, monitor, investigate and prevent criminal activity”.
It appears as though the use of such software is widespread among telecom operators, and according to SS8’s website, its products are used by “some of the largest service providers in the world”.
On Sunday Etisalat issued a two paragraph statement apologising for “a phased software upgrade…that led to extra consumption of the handset battery”. It described the patch as a “routine upgrade process”, but said it had stopped issuing it as a precautionary measure.
At the time of writing the operator had not responded to requests sent yesterday (Monday) for further details about the precise purpose of the patch or Etisalat’s relationship with “lawful interception solutions” firm SS8.
SS8 established its presence in the UAE in February this year when it acquired OCI Mobile, a technology provider that specialised in providing surveillance solutions to government organisations.
According to SS8’s website, the founder of OCI Mobile, Derek Roga, developed technology for smartphone interception and in 2005 he was tasked with introducing the firm’s BlackBerry solution to the Middle East. Roga was also the founder of Dubai-based EMS Mobile, which became RIM’s strategic channel partner for the Middle East region and Etisalat’s partner when the operator launched the BlackBerry in May 2006.
Roga did not respond to messages left at his office in the UAE, and no one from SS8’s US office replied to any messages from CommsMEA at the time of writing.
“The interesting thing is that no one would have known about it if they’d set up the registration server correctly,” Gourlay added. “The whole thing wouldn’t have been reported apart from the battery drain. I think that this whole system has been designed for law enforcement agencies to be deployed on a few dozen suspects’ BlackBerry devices.”
RIM was also unavailable for comment.
========================================
The battery-sapping "performance patch" that Etisalat sent to its BlackBerry subscribers over the last few days was designed to give the UAE operator the ability to read its customers emails and text messages, a Qatar-based software expert told CommsMEA yesterday.
Last week, Etisalat told its 100,000 BlackBerry subscribers that a "performance enhancement patch" would be sent to them to "provide the best BlackBerry service and ultimate experience". But users who downloaded the software complained of dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance of their devices.
Nigel Gourlay, a Doha-based Sun-certified Java programmer who has been developing open source software for 15 years, analysed the patch after it was posted on BlackBerry’s community support forum and he said that once installed, it potentially gives Etisalat the power to view all emails and text messages sent from the BlackBerry.
“I don’t think it’s been designed for a large scale deployment,” he said. “They have released it as an upgrade across all UAE BlackBerry handsets, all of which have tried to phone home to this one registration server at the same time, and that has effectively brought the server to its knees. When the BlackBerry cannot register itself, it tries again and this causes the battery drain.”
Gourlay pointed out that by default the system is turned off and when it installs the only message that is sent is an initial registration message, and that later on, Etisalat could turn on the systems “one by one”.
Once installed, one of the possible commands that can be sent to the device is "start", which would then cause any subsequent message to be forwarded to an Etisalat website.
Gourlay said the patch was stamped with “SS8.com”, the name of a US-based software developer that describes itself as an electronic surveillance solutions company that develops products that “allow intelligence agencies to recognise, monitor, investigate and prevent criminal activity”.
It appears as though the use of such software is widespread among telecom operators, and according to SS8’s website, its products are used by “some of the largest service providers in the world”.
On Sunday Etisalat issued a two paragraph statement apologising for “a phased software upgrade…that led to extra consumption of the handset battery”. It described the patch as a “routine upgrade process”, but said it had stopped issuing it as a precautionary measure.
At the time of writing the operator had not responded to requests sent yesterday (Monday) for further details about the precise purpose of the patch or Etisalat’s relationship with “lawful interception solutions” firm SS8.
SS8 established its presence in the UAE in February this year when it acquired OCI Mobile, a technology provider that specialised in providing surveillance solutions to government organisations.
According to SS8’s website, the founder of OCI Mobile, Derek Roga, developed technology for smartphone interception and in 2005 he was tasked with introducing the firm’s BlackBerry solution to the Middle East. Roga was also the founder of Dubai-based EMS Mobile, which became RIM’s strategic channel partner for the Middle East region and Etisalat’s partner when the operator launched the BlackBerry in May 2006.
Roga did not respond to messages left at his office in the UAE, and no one from SS8’s US office replied to any messages from CommsMEA at the time of writing.
“The interesting thing is that no one would have known about it if they’d set up the registration server correctly,” Gourlay added. “The whole thing wouldn’t have been reported apart from the battery drain. I think that this whole system has been designed for law enforcement agencies to be deployed on a few dozen suspects’ BlackBerry devices.”
RIM was also unavailable for comment.
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