Parts of South Africa are experiencing sluggish internet speeds after a vital international data highway off the West Coast went dark for emergency repairs.
The West Africa Cable System (WACS), a 14 500km undersea fibre-optic lifeline linking South Africa to Europe via Portugal, has been taken offline for what’s being called a ‘critical fix’ off the Namibian coast, as reported by MyBroadband.
The operation, which kicked off in the early hours of Sunday 1 June, involves replacing a malfunctioning branching unit near Swakopmund, an essential junction box that helps power and redirect the flow of data through the cable.
The outage is expected to last until at least 16 June, but experts warn this is dependent on favourable sea conditions. Until then, data flowing between Southern Africa and the Northern Hemisphere is being rerouted, with mixed results.
Cape Town users, in particular, are feeling the pinch.
‘That’s because many networks in the Western Cape rely heavily on WACS and other West Coast cables,’ said Cool Ideas, a local internet service provider. ‘Meanwhile, customers in Gauteng and the northern regions are cushioned by East Coast systems like Seacom and EASSy.’
WACS plays a pivotal role in high-speed data transmission, especially for South African networks and content delivery systems that rely on its direct fibre connection to Europe. In addition to general internet traffic, it also interconnects with the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) via Angola, expanding its reach.
But when it goes down, the domino effect is immediate.
Some providers have robust contingency routes and capacity that absorb the shock.
Robert Kraai of Openserve, who co-chairs WACS’ operations and maintenance committee, confirmed that a deep-sea cable repair ship has already recovered the faulty unit. ‘We’ve verified the rest of the cable is intact. The next step is to install a replacement and conduct a full signal flow test between South Africa and Europe,’ Kraai said.
Once installed, engineers will test the new component to ensure the signal routes correctly from Yzerfontein all the way to Lisbon and onwards to London, which serves as a major European handover hub for global internet traffic.
Meanwhile, industry experts are calling the operation ‘routine but urgent’ and say it emphasises how reliant countries like South Africa are on just a handful of vulnerable underwater cables.
Telecom analyst Roderick Beck noted that unless the sea throws a curveball, repairs should stay on schedule. ‘If nothing unexpected happens out there, we should see full service restored by the third week of June,’ he said.
Until then, some South Africans may want to brace for a digital slowdown.
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Picture: Getty Images
