Internet outages hit banks, telecoms as undersea cables suffer damage

Business a.m

The connectivity of banks and telecommunication companies in Nigeria was severely disrupted on Thursday after a series of major undersea cables that serve the region were damaged near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire. The incident caused significant internet outages, leaving many businesses and individuals in Nigeria and other West and South African countries without access to vital services. 

The cables damaged were the West Africa Cable System (WACS), Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3, which are all critical components of the region’s internet infrastructure.

The connectivity outage was particularly acute for banks and telecom companies in Nigeria, with several banks unable to process transactions as a result of the damaged cables. This led to a wave of complaints from MTN subscribers and other telecom users, who were experiencing poor data quality since Thursday morning. The impact of the outage was not limited to Nigeria, as other West and South African countries also experienced disruptions to their connectivity. 

In response to complaints from its subscribers about poor internet connectivity, MTN released a statement addressing the issue and its cause. 

“We apologize for the challenges you may be experiencing with internet speed and accessing data services at the moment.

This is a result of damage to international undersea cables across East & West Africa. The repair process is ongoing to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Please look out for further updates,” MTN stated.

According to reports from local media in South Africa, the damage to the undersea cables has caused widespread internet disruptions in the country. My Broadband, a local publication covering the South African tech industry, cited WIOCC group business development head Darren Bedford who confirmed that multiple undersea cables operating along the West coast of Africa have been affected by the outages. 

While the outage has caused widespread disruptions in the region, Bedford noted that WIOCC’s capacity on the Equiano and EASSy cables has not been affected. 

In addition to WIOCC, other telecom operators in South Africa, including Vodacom, have also confirmed the undersea cable outages. 

Vodacom expressed its apologies for the inconvenience caused by the disruptions and thanked its customers for their patience as the issue is being resolved.