Network Disruption: Nigerian Telecom vows to restore 100% service today in reference to Undersea Cable Cut

The Association of Licenced Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has stated that the quality of voice and data services provided by telecoms businesses affected by the underwater cable cuts will be fully restored today.

This was confirmed by the association’s Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, in an exclusive interview with Punch yesterday. During the interview, Adebayo expressed optimism that services would be fully restored by Tuesday.

From the progress we have seen, services will be restored completely tomorrow (Tuesday). We are almost there. There are many submarine cables routed to Nigeria. Some are routed through the Ivory Coast and Senegal. Others are routed in other directions. So, the incident in reference was an incident affecting just that particular route”, he explained.

Mr Adebayo also stated that none of Nigeria’s telecoms were free from the outage. However, he added that the influence on each player varies.

“Every telco was affected by the cable cut because it was a major link to Nigeria. The degree of the impact may differ for network providers. All communications in West Africa were affected. There was no exemption. It’s not just Nigeria”, he said.

The chairman further emphasized the significant efforts being made by the operators to mitigate the impact of the disruption on users.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced yesterday that phone and data services disrupted by cable breaks had been restored to about 90% of their peak utilization capacity. In its statement, the NCC stated that operators affected by the cuts had drawn recovery capacity from underwater broadband fibers that were not affected by the reduction.

Mr Adebayo corroborated the announcement by the NCC and further explained that the incident is not unusual: “The other operators not following that route were not affected. So, they improvised an alternate route. It could have also been the other way, with other people routing their traffic the other way. It is a common thing in network planning”, he shared.

Undersea cable cuts: How We Got Here

Remember that on Thursday, March 14, 2024, four undersea telecommunications cables fell down at the same time: the West Africa Cable System (WACS), Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT-3. According to Bloomberg, the damage hit important undersea cables near Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

These outages caused widespread Internet disruptions throughout the continent, including Nigeria and South Africa.

In Nigeria, for example, bank clients and telecom subscribers have borne the brunt of the internet service disruption, with many unable to conduct business on their accounts. Many telecom consumers are dissatisfied with the low quality of their data connections.

According to local media accounts, the underwater damage has also caused widespread internet outages in South Africa.

My Broadband, a South African publication, said that WIOCC group business development chief Darren Bedford acknowledged that many undersea cables along Africa’s west coast are down.

Bedford stated that the capacity of the Equiano broadband fiber had not been compromised. WIOCC also has capacity on the Eastern EASSy cable. Bedford stated that the interruption would not affect its clients because of the backup capacity.

Vodacom, a South African cellular company, has acknowledged the consequent internet outages.

The United States Geological Survey found no tremors near the cable cuts last week. However, this does not exclude alternative forms of activity on the seafloor. Because of the depth, MainOne has effectively ruled out sabotage.

Five weeks for the remainder of the continent?

Meanwhile, a report published yesterday stated that repairing the damaged subsea fibers and restoring full service will take at least 5 weeks.

Ghana’s National Communication Authority reached this determination following a meeting with four subsea cable landing service providers and telcos. The landing service providers are Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), Equinix’s MainOne, South Atlantic 3, and the West Africa Cable System.

During the discussion, the landing service providers revealed the approximate location of the damage and stated that they had made plans to send repair vessels to the site.

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Joshua Samuel

A conscientious writer with a knack and passion for story telling which spans across different sectors and segments. I love telling stories in writing and bringing quality, authentic and timely information to everyone everywhere.

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