Telecommunications operators in Nigeria have apologised to users for outages on their different networks caused by damage to multiple submarine cables along the West African Coast.
The appeal was made in a statement signed by Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), and Gbolahan Awonuga, executive secretary of ALTON,.
Adebayo said that on behalf of its members, it wished to assure users of communication services that repair processes were ongoing by the responsible international service providers.
he News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a combination of cable cuts, resulted in equipment faults on major undersea cables along the West African Coast.
The issue negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several West Africa countries, including Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast among others. The cuts occurred somewhere in Ivory Coast and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal.
Cable companies such as 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.
Adebayo said that the unfortunate development had impacted on data and internet service delivery by some of its members.
“We highly regret any inconveniences caused by the damage to the submarine fibre optics cable on the international waterways.
Recall that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had in the early hours of Thursday, reported that combination of cable cuts had resulted in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, which negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Cote de Ivoire, among others.
The cuts occurred somewhere in Cote de’Ivoire 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.
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 the routes.
Huge volumes of data are transported across continents by underwater cables, which are an essential component of internet connectivity infrastructure.
They could, however, be harmed by things like unintentional cuts, natural disasters, or technological failures. The functioning of governments, corporations, and individual consumers can all be severely impacted by disruptions to these connections.
Adebayo said that the unfortunate development had impacted on data and internet service delivery by some of its members.
“We highly regret any inconveniences caused by the damage to the submarine fibre optics cable on the international waterways.