The disruption in the SEA-ME-WE 4 undersea submarine cable system, which links South East Asia and Europe, is likely to affect the high-speed Internet services in the country.

The South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) project links the two regions via the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East. The project is run by a consortium of 16 international telecom companies, including Indian majors Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications.

According to sources, the disruption in the undersea cable network near Italy is likely to hit the broadband connections in India.Maintenance of the undersea cables will be carried out for the next four days, which may cause some disruption in services.

However, the companies have taken various steps to minimise the impact, sources said.
Going by the project's official website, the undersea cable system has terminal stations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.

"The project aims to take these regions to the forefront of global communication by significantly increasing the bandwidth and global connectivity of users along its route between Singapore and France," the website said.