Internet shutdown

JOHANNESBURG – Failure to pay a $700 000 bill to a satellite company has brought Zimbabwe’s internet services to a virtual standstill.

Internet users in Zimbabwe have complained of long delays in sending and receiving e-mails, painfully slow browsing speeds and problems connecting to many websites since Intelsat severed a satellite link that provided about three-quarters of the bandwidth used by the state-owned communications firm, TelOne. The country’s biggest internet service provider, MWeb Zimbabwe, issued a statement apologising to subscribers for the delays, but said it did not know when TelOne would settle its debt to Intelsat, one of the world’s biggest communications companies.SapaThe country’s biggest internet service provider, MWeb Zimbabwe, issued a statement apologising to subscribers for the delays, but said it did not know when TelOne would settle its debt to Intelsat, one of the world’s biggest communications companies.Sapa