Abhinav Bhatt, Supriya Shrinate/NDTV

New Delhi, Jan 31: If you're used to beginning your day by logging on to the net, brace yourself for a huge slowdown over the next few days.

That's how long it could take to restore Internet services in India and large parts of West Asia to their normal level.

Net access in these areas has been hit following damage to two undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea.

Internet service providers in India have put the disruption at 60 per cent of normal services while those in Egypt have been affected up to 70 per cent.

Other countries affected in West Asia are the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

Call centres located in these areas have been affected, as well as international calls, which are now being rerouted.

The cable service provider has said the disruption was caused by a ship that accidentally cut the cable, after it was diverted from the Egyptian port of Alexandria due to bad weather.

Delhi logged out

And it's not just the link to the web world that may have been snapped in Egypt but time came to a standstill for its users in Delhi as well.

Twenty-five-year old Ajit was trying hard to cope with life beyond the Web world but found it excruciatingly difficult.

He said he could not complete important office work and worst of all, he was uable to chat.

Internet providers reported at least a 50 per cent loss in service due to the disruption in connection.

But cyber cafes had no explanation for their customers about why the Net was erratic and why business was suffering.

''We are unable to access any website. Customers are disappointed by this. The internet is really very slow,'' said Sahil, a Net user.

Although the Indian Internet Service Providers have said they have started a downgraded service, full restoration may be possible only after 10 to 15 days.

It's time enough, perhaps, for Delhizens to learn about life beyond the Net.