news:
- There are reports that some mobile network operators (MNOs) are gradually restoring services more than two months after the internet was shut down in war-torn Sudan.
- Operators operating locally such as Sudani and Zain, the state’s second-largest operator, are said to have started operations, but only to a certain extent as they are yet to resume full coverage.
- However, one exception is Sudartel, a state-owned telecommunications and internet service provider responsible for the installation, maintenance and operation of telecommunications services.
Sudatel is reportedly fully operational and is based in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan in the east of the East African country, from where it provides fiber optic data connections.
Currently, MTN is said to remain fully shut down across the country. The country’s largest telecommunications company has yet to say how it plans to resolve its connectivity issues.
Mobile network operators try to restore services as the crisis has gripped the country for almost a year. People and businesses in the country have been cut off from each other and from the rest of the world following clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The telecommunications outage in Sudan is a direct result of damage to the country’s communications infrastructure.
Fighting between the country’s army and paramilitary forces has severely damaged cell phone towers and power grids, plunging 49 million Sudanese into a humanitarian crisis.
Telecommunications providers are struggling to regain full control over their services due to the scale of the outage, which has severely compromised their systems and resulted in unstable and intermittent connectivity for voice and data services.
Despite not having a license in the country, Starlink has become a necessity for many Sudanese, including Doctors Without Borders, to stay connected during internet blackouts.
In another development, the Sudanese government recently approved a request by humanitarian aid workers to import telecommunications equipment into the country.
The National Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), launched in May 2023 to assist Sudan’s humanitarian response, welcomed the move.
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