RIYADH: Saudi Telecom Company (STC) said yesterday that it was able to overcome the cable crisis, and its subscribers remained connected using broadband services and Jawalnet.
The crisis arose a few days ago with the severe cutoff of the three cables in the Mediterranean Sea, Alexandria and Italy, which has affected international audio and Internet services in the region. These services represent more than 80 percent of the total telephone and Internet interchanges around the world, the company said in a press release.
STC international network, it said, is considered the most developed and advanced in the region and is known as the first communications provider to use marine cable technology in telecommunications. The company began with the first generation of the continental marine cable (SEA ME WE 1) in 1986, which was functioning using copper technology. These technologies were further developed and today fiber optics (DWDM) technology is used as an industry standard.
STC is also the largest supplier of Internet services in the region and uses the biggest Internet gateways (10 GB/S), and is considered the largest in the region.
The connection process of STC’s local Internet with global Internet gateways is set up through international routes via all functioning marine cables and through a series of stations and points East and West. These capacities are distributed to the Internet centers in Riyadh and Jeddah that are linked to self-protection routers connecting the Kingdom’s Internet network with the various international service providers thus achieving more quality and consistency of service.
STC is linked with neighboring countries through a local fiber optics network with various paths and capacities that includes the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Yemen, Iraq and Oman.
