No one likes a delayed flight, much less a canceled one. But that's exactly what happened in Pakistan following a drastic slowdown of the internet, which was the result of a submarine cable fault.
We've been reading up on this story, as well as a new study about victims of DDoS attacks, spectrum in South Africa, and mobile disruptor Reliance Jio Infocomm. Scope out our reading list below.
Islamabad airport cancels eight flights due to internet flaw
Why it’s worth your time: Submarine cables are important for many reasons. Take this example of the cancellation of at least eight domestic and international flights at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport, for instance. The reason? Pakistan saw slowed internet due to a fault in a submarine cable. Cables are literally keeping the trains (and planes!) running on time.
The Jio Effect: How the Newcomer Made an Impact in India
Why it’s worth your time: There are a lot of mobile subscribers in India. It's the second largest mobile market behind China. In September 2016 India’s mobile market was rocked by disruptive newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm, which initiated a potentially devastating price war and forced the rapid acceleration of the sector’s evolution. This piece looks closer at how Jio has made its mark.
DDoS victims are often willing to pay out ransoms, says study
Why it’s worth your time: Fierce Telecom wrote this interesting piece about victims of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A new study, which polled 100 security professionals at the Infosecurity Europe conference in London, found that 62 percent believed it is likely or possible that their leadership team would pay.
We need spectrum to cover rural South Africa – Vodacom
Why it’s worth your time: Vodacom CTO Andries Delport says that when it comes to the company's LTE network, only 44 percent of the population in rural South Africa has coverage. For comparison, in urban areas that figure is 91 percent.
Delport has called on the government to release spectrum to operators to improve the mobile network coverage of rural South Africans. (Hey! We even covered this story in our daily CommsUpdate roundup.)
Huawei at Center of Pacific Cable Spat
Why it’s worth your time: More sub cable news here, with the Australian government telling the Solomon Islands it will not allow a new cable to land in Sydney if it issues the contract to Huawei. Both the U.S. and Australian governments consider Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. a security risk, banning their network gear.