Internet services have been disrupted throughout the country on Thursday following a major international cable breakdown in the Mediterranean sea.

Nearly, 50-60% capacity remained down in the country following the damage of SEA-ME-We 3 and SEA-ME-WE 4 cables that connects Mumbai to East Coast of the USA and the UK.

"The repair will take another 15-20 days," Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) President Rajesh Chharia said.

Some service providers affected by the breakdown include FLAGTEL of ADAG Reliance and Delhi's internet ISP Spectranet and Bangalore's ISP Karturi Network, he said.

Several cables were damaged when some ships had to anchor in Egypt's Alexandria region due to bad weather conditions. It has impacted internet connectivity in India.

The connections were severed on Wednesday afternoon, Chharia added.

"Majority of the firms are trying to restore their connections through the Pacific Region, which is increasing the latency period (time taken to connect two servers)," he added.

Chharia said the Bombay Stock Exchange was unlikely to be impacted as it is connected through the VPN.

Source- http://in.news.yahoo.com/indianexpress/20080131/r_t_ie_nl_general/tnl-internet-services-in-india-disrupted-aaaedd4_1.html