Internet disruption: Undersea cable repair might take two weeks, says MainOne

MainOne, a West African digital infrastructure service provider, says repairing its undersea submarine cables might take one to two weeks.

On Thursday, subsea cable providers were affected by major cuts to undersea submarine cables, disrupting internet traffic in major parts of the continent.

This disrupted the services of banks and telecommunications companies in Nigeria.

In a statement on Friday, MainOne said an additional two to three weeks of transit time may be required for a vessel to pick up the spares of submarine cables and travel from Europe to West Africa.

Speaking on the cause of the network outage, MainOne said preliminary findings and further investigations showed “the fault occurred due to an external incident that resulted in a cut on its submarine cable system, in the Atlantic Ocean offshore Cote D’Ivoire, along the coast of West Africa”.

“We have a maintenance agreement with Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement (ACMA) to provide repair services for the submarine cable,” the company said.

“First identify and assign a vessel, the vessel has to retrieve the necessary spares required for repair, and then sail to the fault location to conduct the repair work.

“Next, in order to complete the repair, the affected section of the submarine cable will have to be pulled from the seabed onto the ship where it will be spliced by skilled technicians.”

According to MainOne, after repair, joints will be inspected and tested for any defects and subsequently, the submarine cable will be lowered back to the seabed and placed in a good position.

“This process might take 1-2 weeks for repairs while about 2-3 weeks of transit time may be required for the vessel to pick up the spares and travel from Europe to West Africa once the vessel is mobilised,” MainOne said.

In another update on Friday, the company said it is working with cable systems not affected by the incident or previous outages to secure restoration capacity.

MainOne said its technical team is working assiduously to restore services, subject to availability of capacity and service configuration specifics.

“We will also provide incremental updates on the root cause and efforts to repair the submarine cable as soon as those details become available,” the company said.

MTN: BAYOBAB WORKING WITH PARTNERS TO REPAIR DAMAGED CABLES

In a statement on Friday, MTN Group said Bayobab, a digital connectivity solutions company,
is working with its partners on the synchronisation of repair work on the damaged underwater digital communication cables along West Africa.

“As confirmed by their consortium partners, on March 14, 2024 four subsea cables were cut. They are WACS, ACE, SAT3 and MainOne,” MTN said.

According to the statement, it is also collaborating with partners to mitigate the impact of the damage by rerouting traffic and enabling more circuits.

“ACE and WACS have jointly initiated the repair process by mobilising a cable ship for a collaborative repair effort. While investigation and repair efforts are underway, Bayobab’s strategy focuses on successfully rerouting traffic, leveraging our extensive network, and collaborating with industry partners,” the telco said.

“Our network resiliency allows for the swift activation of new cables, facilitating faster rerouting and bolstering network resilience. By activating new cables, we quickly increase interconnectivity and establish alternative routes.

“Additionally, we are working with the cable consortiums and partners to enhance interconnection along both the west and east coasts, with further interconnections between WACS and Equiano, and the introduction of the end-to-end connection between WACS on the west coast and EASSy on the east coast.”

MTN said it has already made progress in restoring service in some affected regions, assuring it remains committed to achieving full recovery as swiftly as possible.