Very severe Cyclone Vardah to make landfall tomorrow

Airtel, Vodafone & Idea Cellular fixing Vardah cyclone-hit networks in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh

Mobile phone operators such as Bharti Airtel , Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, and tower company Indus Towers are racing to repair and restore their infrastructure which were severely damaged after Cyclone Vardah hit parts of Tamil Nadu, including Chennai city, and Andhra Pradesh on Monday.

Indus Towers, the world's largest tower company, has deployed 500 people for restoring communications in the cyclone-hit parts, a spokesperson for the company told ET on Tuesday.

Due to the impact of the cyclone, Indus Towers said it is experiencing total power disruption and damage to its telecommunication infrastructure due to fallen trees and electricity poles, which has impacted about 60% of its towers in Chennai.

The company has deployed 60,000 litres of diesel to the affected sites to reduce downtime, it added.

The preparedness comes from lessons of last year when communication came to a standstill in a flood-hit Chennai. Industry body Assocham estimated that Cyclone Vardah has caused destruction worth up to $1 billion to the industries in the affected areas.

India's No. 1 telecom operator Bharti Airtel said the severity of the Vardah cyclone damaged one of its international undersea cables, which has partially affected its internet traffic, resulting in slow internet and data speeds.

"Our teams are working to normalise the operations at the earliest possible and making alternate arrangements to divert international internet traffic," Airtel said in a statement.

Idea said the cyclone has caused damage to telecom infrastructure in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu, leading to disruption of services in some areas. “Idea team is working 24x7 to restore connectivity and support our customers in the impacted areas,” the company said. Vodafone said its teams were working on a war footing to restore services, which were “almost back to normal” in most places.

Aircel, a major telecom player in the southern market, said its network service has been temporarily hurt. However, the telco said 75% of its transmission network is up and it would be working completely by the end of Tuesday.

"Once power is restored, our sites would work and in the meanwhile, we are also filling diesel to the generator sets continuously," said Sankara Narayanan K, head-SBU 1 at Aircel.

Tata Communications said it has mobilised field resources across multiple locations and has restricted movement of field engineers. The telco said its aerial cables have been thoroughly checked and adequate infrastructure materials and fuel have been distributed across multiple locations.

Cyclone Vardah that made a landfall in Chennai on Monday caused severe damage to the city. The most intense storm to have hit the Tamil Nadu capital in two decades, Vardah left four people dead and disrupted communication networks.

Bharti Airtel: Airtel, Vodafone & Idea Cellular fixing Vardah cyclone-hit networks in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telecom News, ET Telecom
 
Just now reached my home in Chennai. Thank God power is there. Just checked my dishes. Two dishes got misaligned...

 
M.J.Sadiq said:
Just now reached my home in Chennai. Thank God power is there. Just checked my dishes. Two dishes got misaligned...

Which area bro you are..?
It's day 4, at here Tambaram (Gateway to Chennai in south) still no power is available...
Reminds me of Bear Grylls on how to survive without power and light...
 
Cyclone impact: Internet slows down in Pune

In the damage unleashed by Cyclone
Vardah , an undersea network cable, or submarine cable, was affected, which in turn impacted Internet connectivity in parts in the city.

Airtel — and to an extent Reliance Jio — was affected while other service providers reported minimal disruption. Airtel had sent its customers a message apprising them of the issue. The company’s spokesperson said connectivity has “largely improved” since.

“The cyclone in Chennai has impacted one of our undersea network cables, which may affect your Internet speeds … Our engineers are working to resolve the issue and services will be normalized shortly,” Airtel — which owns the affected i2i cable network — said in a SMS blast to its customers.

A company spokesperson told TOI: “The situation has largely improved across the country, including Maharashtra, as we have made some alternative arrangements and also due to the speedy recovery from the damage which was caused due to Vardah.”

He also said their voice network was not affected as it was not built on the same “infrastructure backbone” as the Internet service. “Even the slightest of damages can cause disruption to the quality of network,” he said, without specifying the extent of damage to the cable. He did, however, rule out any “massive damage.”

Vodafone and Idea spokespersons said that there the cyclone has had no impact on their operations in Maharashtra and Goa.

A Reliance Jio spokesperson said the cyclone’s impact has been “negligible” on the company’s network and assets so far, and that they are working on a war-footing to ensure the service remains fully available to customers through this phase.

However, customers experienced patchy Internet connectivity in the city through much of the day.

City banks on Wednesday reported no disruption to banking services due to slow Internet connectivity.

This is not the first time that damage to the undersea cable has caused Internet disruptions. Services were affected in the past after the tsunami in December 2004 and due to damage to undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea in 2008.

Why are undersea cables so critical?

About 99% of international communications are carried out through undersea cables. Alsom, carrying data over cables is cheaper compared to carrying data over satellites due to limited space available

How many cables does each telecom operator use?

Most telecom service providers in India use about 3-4 subsea cables. Some of them own these cables individually and some others share cables with other telecom providers of the world

Aren’t these protected?

A single submarine cable is 0.75-2.5 inches in thickness. Closer to the shore where they land, the cables are armoured. In the beginning of the bed, they are buried under the sand. Under the sea, however, they do not have special protection

cyclone impact: internet slows down in pune, Telecom News, ET Telecom
 
Ashok L said:
Which area bro you are..?
It's day 4, at here Tambaram (Gateway to Chennai in south) still no power is available...
Reminds me of Bear Grylls on how to survive without power and light...
I am from Velachery.. Power resumed only last night as heard from my house owner..

 
Ashok L said:
It's day 4, at here Tambaram (Gateway to Chennai in south) still no power is available...
Reminds me of Bear Grylls on how to survive without power and light...

Tough situation but no one can prevent from nature except God .. This cyclone powerful one in 75 years .. 6K trees gone and 15K electric tx-mers gone .. Really huge task for manpower :s:nj ..
 
M.J.Sadiq said:
Just now reached my home in Chennai. Thank God power is there. Just checked my dishes. Two dishes got misaligned...
Hope they are only misaligned bro. No other loss. :)

You can easily set them again we know. ;)
 
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