Cyclone Vardah Resulted in Slow Internet and Data Speeds

[Dipika Menon]

Major telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, Aircel, and Tata Teleservices witnessed severe damage of its International undersea cables. As a result, its internet traffic has been affected resulting in slow internet connectivity and data speeds. If you happen to live in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, you will experience reduced internet speeds.

Vardah Cyclone Effect:

The Cyclone Vardah happens to be the most intense storm to have hit Tamil Nadu in two decades. It left total power disruption and damage to the communication network. Moreover, the sea cable system damage resulted in slow internet connectivity. Even the broadband service providers like ACT Internet, YOU Broadband, PioneerElabs etc got impacted by this severe Cyclone Vardah.

All the telecom operators have been working on war footing basis to restore services. However, the total power disruption due to fallen trees and electricity poles make it longer to get it fixed. Addressing the situation, the Indus Towers has deployed adequate infrastructure material and 60,000 litres of fuel (diesel) to the affected sites to reduce the downtime. Mr. K Sankara Narayanan, Head-SBU 1, Aircel, said: “Once power is restored, our sites would work and in the meanwhile, we are also filling diesel to the generator sets continuously.”

As a result of patchy mobile signals and slow internet speed, digital money transactions at retail stores and fuel stations went dry. A lot of international traffic has been routed as of now. It is better to reschedule sensitive operations accordingly so that there is a minimal impact.