The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has said that there are ongoing repairs to address the disruption in internet services caused by damaged undersea cables.
This was disclosed by the NCC director of Public Affairs Reuben Muoka, following widespread complaints from Nigerian users about the poor internet service that disrupted their work as well as posing a challenge to several economic activities.
The NCC said the cable operators have promised to work round the clock to ensure that service are restored to the affected counties within the shortest time possible.
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Narrating the incident that led to the disruption of the internet service experienced in Nigeria and some West African Countries, the NCC said,
“A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, have negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cote de /voire, among others.
“The cuts occurred somewhere in Cote d’lvoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal. Cable companies – West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe have experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.”
According to the Commission, similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE1), are said to have been cut at some point around the Red Sea, resulting in degradation of services across on these routes.
The impaired cables are responsible for approximately a quarter of the region’s internet traffic, as estimated by HGC Global Communications, a Hong Kong-based internet provider reliant on these cables.
As reported by the BBC, the disruption extended to South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Cameroon, and Benin. To mitigate the impact of the outage, traffic has been redirected through alternative cable routes, including those along the west coast of Africa.
Concerned subscribers have taken to social media platforms to voice their grievances, expressing frustration over the prolonged network outage and its impact on their daily activities. Subscribers have reported failed attempts to make calls, while others have expressed concerns about the failure to receive bank alerts.
Due to this, Banks and Telecommunications operators have apologised to users for network outages caused by damage to multiple submarine cables along the West African Coast.
The telcos assured its customers that it was actively working to resolve the issue and restore services as quickly as possible.
Bayobab Group, a subsidiary of MTN Groupsaid via a statement,
“Bayobab group acknowledges the ongoing disruptions affecting connectivity services in several West African countries due to breaks in multiple major undersea cables. Recognising the critical importance of consistent internet and communication services, we are fully committed to swiftly addressing these disruptions.
“To mitigate the impact on our customers in the affected countries, our operations are actively working to reroute traffic through alternative network paths and engaging with our consortium partners to expedite the repair process for the damaged cables.
“Leveraging our robust and resilient network infrastructure, we aim to minimise service interruptions and maintain connectivity. We thank you for your patience and understanding as we work diligently to resolve this situation”, the telco stated.