…. ALTON calls for understanding
The recent Internet and Voice services being experienced in some African countries have been blamed on the disruption of some undersea cables along the West African Coastline.
In a statement issued yesterday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the disruption is a combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast.
The statement signed by Reuben Mouka, Director of Public Affairs at NCC, noted that the cuts have negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Cote de Ivoire, among others.
The cuts, which occurred somewhere in Cote de’Ivoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal have also led to Cable companies such as West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.
Also, 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.
In Nigeria and other West African countries, Internet access and speed have experienced disruptions in the networks of service providers in the affected countries.
Meanwhile, operators of these cables have commenced repairs already, and services are gradually being restored. They have also promised to work round the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.
ALTON apologises for the disruption
The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), an umbrella body of all licensed telecom operators in Nigeria has issued a public apology for all inconveniences arising from the impact of the damage and resulting outage.
A statement jointly signed by Engr. Gbenga Adebayo and Gbolahan Awonuga, the Chairman and Executive Secretary of ALTON, noted that the operators regret any inconveniences caused by the damage to the submarine fibre optics cable in the international waterways.
The statement also assures the users of Communication services that the repair process is ongoing by the responsible international service providers and services should be fully resolved soonest.