BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY MEDIA FOR AFRICA

‘Ship to pay Telecom Egypt $12.5mn in cable damages’

‘Ship to pay Telecom Egypt $12.5mn in cable damages’
Gareth van Zyl
By Gareth van Zyl, Editor, ITWeb Africa
10 Feb 2014

Representatives of a ship that damaged two submarine internet cables near Egypt in March 2013 have to pay $12.535 million in damages.

This is according to a Stock Market Wire report, which says Telecom Egypt has inked a settlement with lawyers representing the ‘B-Elephant’ tanker ship that damaged and cut two submarine cables, Europe India Gateway (EIG) and Telecom Egypt (TE) North, last March.

The ship’s anchor dragged through the cables on 22 March 2013, resulting in widespread internet disruptions. The disruptions even hit the subsea SEACOM cable network, which stretches 17,000 km connecting Africa to Europe and Asia.

At the time of the cable cut, internet service providers, such as South Africa’s Mweb -- which uses SEACOM -- had to reroute traffic amid customer complaints.

The final settlement of $12.535 million is then related to repairs, spare parts and the cost of returning the two submarine cables to their original condition, according to the Stock Market Wire report.

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Data on VesselFinder.com says that B-Elephant is an oil tanker that is sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands. The website also says the tanker was built in 2010.

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