FALCON cable

·         On February 1, 2008 FALCON cable, a third marine cable was snapped, compounding global net woes caused by two broken lines on Jan 30.

·         The cause of the break, in the Persian Gulf, has not been confirmed but a repair ship has been deployed by the owners Flag Telecom.

·         Following the earlier break internet services were severely disrupted in Egypt, the Middle East and India.

·         There was disruption to 70% of the nationwide internet network in Egypt on Wednesday, while India suffered up to 60% disruption.

·         The first cable - the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) - was cut at 0800 on 30 January

·         Flag Telecom said a repair ship was expected to arrive at the site of the first break - 8.3km from Alexandria in Egypt - on 5 February, with repair work expected to take a week.

·         A repair ship deployed to the second break - 56km from Dubai - was expected to arrive at the site in the "next few days", the firm said.

·         A second cable thought to lie alongside it - SEA-ME-WE 4, or the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable - was also split.

·         FLAG is a 28,000km (17,400 mile) long submarine communications cable that linsk Australia and Japan with Europe via India and the Middle East.

·         SEA-ME-WE 4 is a submarine cable linking South East Asia to Europe via the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

·         The two cable cuts meant that the only cable in service connecting Europe to the Middle East via Egypt was the older Sea-M-We 3 system

·         The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) estimates the size of India's outsourcing industry at $11 billion, with more than 700,000 employees.

·         The industry caters to 25 countries with a 40 percent market share.

·         The extent of financial damage to BPO companies was still being ascertained.

·         Two undersea cables are said to have been cut near Alexandria on Egypt's north coast and one of them belonged to FLAG Telecom, which is a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

• Apart from India, the breakdown affected Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain.