By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN - The Jordan Telecom Group (JTG) on Thursday attributed the sporadic disruptions in Internet connections recently witnessed in Jordan to "huge" pressure on the network and "unprecedented reliance” on the service.

"Internet is becoming a basic service that every single person in the family uses and there is a huge demand for it in Jordan," JTG chief financial officer, Raslan Diranieh, told The Jordan Times yesterday.

The number of Internet subscribers rose by about 40 per cent during the first 10 months of 2008 compared to the same period last year, he said, noting that there are about 180,000 Orange Internet subscribers in the country.

According to Diranieh, other reasons behind the disruptions include damaged cables which are mainly cut as a result of construction activity as well as individuals stealing cables to sell them.

As of early this month, Internet connections have witnessed intermittent disruptions ranging between 10 minutes to 10 days.

Diranieh stressed that there has been no rise in the percentage of technical problems this year compared to past years.

Ruling out the possibility of disruptions during the coming week, he said JTG is going ahead with plans and investments to enhance the infrastructure in order to improve services and meet the surging demand.

Meanwhile, several web users said the interruptions were negatively affecting their businesses and daily lives.

"On Sunday, I waited for more than 20 minutes to get the service at home in order to send an urgent e-mail," university student Elyass Manneh said on Thursday.

“I do not understand why connecting to the Internet has been a problem so often recently. This is intolerable,” he added.

Safwan Asfour, an auditor, echoed his remarks.

"It is so inconvenient when the Internet is down. There must be a solution to this problem; it cannot just keep happening," he told The Jordan Times.

"It is also very annoying not to have the service whenever you need it," Asfour added.