Op The Age staat een stuk over een handige Australische visser danwel een aardbeving die er voor heeft gezorgd dat de zg. "SEA-ME-WE 3" kabel, die Ausralië, Azië en Europa met elkaar vebindt, down is. De grootste ISP van Ausralië, Telstra, is voor 60% van die kabel afhankelijk. Hierdoor was 2/3 van hun 500.000 abonnees offline.
Tot deze gebeurtenis was SEA-ME-WE 3 de dikste internetconnectie van Australië, en een van de snelsten en langsten van de wereld, met zijn 20Gbit/sec capaciteit. Gelukkig voor onze mede-internetters Down-Under ligt er al een nieuwere kabel klaar, de "Southern Cross cable" die 100Gbit/sec aankan. Helaas is Telstra daar nog niet op aangesloten.
The cut virtually closed down Telstra's Internet network, which used the cable for 60 per cent of its international Internet access.
Telstra's other Internet connections were unable to cope with the redirected demand. At 4pm Telstra's Internet network was working at just over 30 per cent capacity, meaning at any one time around two thirds of its users experienced slow or non-existent Internet access, a Telstra spokesman said.
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Telstra spokesman Stuart Gray said the company's Internet network was in gridlock and he did not know when it would come back to normal operation, though the company was looking at getting alternative capacity from satellite and other networks.
During the afternoon an increasing backlog of requests for international Web pages caused the already congested system to slow down further.
The cable cut had also affected Internet access in Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, UK and the USA, though its biggest impact was in South East Asia. The cause of the damage, which occurred approximately 100km from Singapore on the ocean floor, could not be confirmed. Possible causes include a ship's anchor or minor earthquake.
Martin Sturm bedankt voor de tip.