As if India is not dealing with enough issues already, a massive storm hit the country earlier this week. Although natural disasters are not out of the ordinary in the region, this storm affected one of the undersea Internet cables. Very few residents can access the Internet right now, causing even more turmoil in a country filled with adversity.
Limited To No Internet In India For Now
Vardah, as this tropical cyclone is known, is a grave cause of concern in India, not only because it destroyed buildings and trees, but also for the damage it has caused to the undersea Internet cable. As a result of this storm, hardly anyone in the country can access Internet services unless they use mobile data.
Several thousand outages have been reported so far, and that number will only continue to increase as time progresses. One of the Country’s largest tech hubs, Bangalore, is heavily affected by the storm. Even Mumbai and New Delhi are suffering from significant outages, which does not bode well for the rest of the Country.
India is, together with quite a few other countries, connected to the Internet through an undersea cable. Even though these cables are well isolated and protected from most harm, a tropical cyclone is something that one cannot prepare for properly. Internet speeds are being affected, and connectivity is a big problem in particular regions at this time.
Engineers are hard at work to repair the damage done, but the process will take a bit of time to complete. Services should be normalized in the coming days, but the slow speed may remain for a little while longer. Chennai, where the storm hit landfall, is one of the Country’s largest Internet gateways.
Bitcoin and e-wallet users in India should not be affected by this outage in most cases. Smartphone adoption in the country is booming, and very few people run a Bitcoin or other wallet service on their laptops or desktop computers. Since mobile data is not affected much by the storm, connecting to the Internet should not be a big problem in this regard.
That is, unfortunately, one of the downsides of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Without an Internet connection, one can hardly use it as a payment method or as a way to transfer funds to friends and family. Luckily, there are so many different types of Internet connectivity available, that this is no longer an issue in most countries.
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