- Following an internet outage in Nigeria and neighboring countries, we are working to quickly restore service to affected customers
- The disruptions stemmed from damage to international undersea cables critical to telecommunications and banking services
- Reports confirm that disruption, centered near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, is impacting connectivity in several West and South African countries
Legit.ng Reporter Segun Adeyemi has over 9 years of experience covering political events, civil society, courts and metros
MainOne, a company that provides digital infrastructure services in West Africa, expects it could take up to two weeks to repair its undersea cables.
The cables were cut on Thursday, March 14, affecting internet connectivity in several parts of the continent.
Source: Getty Images
The outage affected the operations of Nigerian banks and telecommunications companies.
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MainOne announced on Friday that it could take an extra two to three weeks for a ship to collect replacement parts for an undersea cable and travel from Europe to West Africa.
They said an external event caused the network outage. Preliminary investigations indicate that an undersea cable system was severed off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to TheCable, the company said:
“We have a maintenance agreement with Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement (ACMA) to provide repair services for submarine cables.
“First a ship is identified and assigned, which must retrieve the spare parts needed for the repair, and then sail to the location of the failure to carry out the repair work.
“Next, in order to complete the repair work, the affected subsea cable sections must be pulled from the seabed to the ship and spliced by skilled technicians.”
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Repair of undersea cables could take two weeks – MainOne
MainOne announced that once the repairs are complete, they will carefully inspect and test the joints for any issues.
The submarine cable will be returned to the seafloor and positioned correctly.
The repair process is expected to last 1-2 weeks and once ready for mobilization, the ship may travel from Europe to West Africa to collect the necessary parts.
On Friday, the company provided another update, saying it was working with unaffected cable systems to ensure they have the necessary resilience.
MainOne mentioned that its technical team is working to restore services, subject to available capacity and specific service configurations.
Network outage: MTN, others provide updates
Meanwhile, MTN and other telecommunications companies have informed customers of recent network outages in various countries.
The problem stems from damage to submarine cables in Côte d’Ivoire and affects several countries in West and Southern Africa.
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Nigeria and other African countries suffer internet outage due to damaged submarine cables
MTN has assured customers that the matter is being dealt with urgently and plans to rectify the situation immediately.
Source: Legit.ng