A rockfall in the Congo Canyon last week caused the breakage of two crucial undersea communication cables on the same day resulting in disruptions in internet speeds and connectivity services across the country.
According to network status reports, the South Atlantic Telecommunications Cable number three (SAT-3) snapped on Sunday morning, 6 August, and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) was cut later that evening.
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The breaks occurred between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, based on the distance measured using the system’s Coherent Optical Time Domain Reflectometer.
Openserve, Telkom’s wholesale and networks division, confirmed the breaks to MyBroadband and said that the impact on its network is limited to customers on the international private leased circuits (IPLC) services.
‘Openserve can confirm the breaks of the WACS and SAT-3 undersea cables. We are collaborating with the consortium partners to facilitate the restoration of these cables,’ said the network provider.
‘The Openserve network remains robust due to our investment in other international cable capacities, hence all Openserve IP Transit services (WebReach) traffic has been automatically re-routed, ensuring our customers stay seamlessly connected.’
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The Congo Canyon, one of the world’s largest submarine canyons, cuts through the continental shelf and slope of western equatorial Africa in the South Atlantic Ocean. WACS, one of the main connections between South Africa and Europe along the African west coast and ends in the United Kingdom, follow along this path, reported Bizcommunity.
The WACS system lands in South Africa at Yzerfontein, Western Cape, with the SAT-3/WACS system entering the country at Melkbosstrand, Western Cape.
MyBroadband reported that it might take a month or more for the cable repair ship, the Léon Thévenin, to reach the WACS break location, approximately 3 600 kilometres northwest of South Africa.
A recent status update shows that the ship is currently busy with repairs on another subsea cable system and is estimated to arrive at the WACS breakage site anywhere during the first three weeks of September, subject to weather conditions.
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Picture: Mika Baumeister / Unsplash
