Bogged down by slower-than-usual Internet speeds for the last couple of days? Brace yourself for a couple more such days... The reason: Internet access in India and large parts of West Asia including the UAE, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia has been hit following breakdown of two undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea.

The disruption was caused by an anchoring ship that accidentally damaged Indian-owned Flag cable and SEA-ME-WE after being diverted from the Egyptian port of Alexandria due to bad weather. Repair teams have already set sail for the location but the disruption that started yesterday hasn't yet been resolved. Reportedly, it will take a week to a fortnight to restore services back to normalcy. Indian Internet service providers have put the disruption at 60 percent of normal services, while those in Egypt have put it down at 70 percent of normal services. The Indian capital almost but all logged out following the disruption, with Internet service providers putting it down at at least a 50 percent loss of service. Across the country, irritable customers complained that they were unable to access Web sites and that the Internet was drearily slow. Cyber cafes had no explanation for the Internet's erratic behavior. By contrast, BPOs across the country remained largely unaffected by the breakdown. Indian Internet service providers have now said they've started a downgraded service, but that full restoration might be possible only after ten to fifteen days. Apart from India, Cairo suffered a partial disruption of Internet services and other telecommunications across most of Egypt. Internet services were also disrupted in Dubai in the UAE. International telephone services were affected by the cable breakdown.