Internet, Voice Outages Caused By Undersea Cable Cuts Restored By 90%— NCC

The internet service outage which disrupted dozens of African countries, including Nigeria has been restored by 90 per cent.

Countries in Africa were rocked with internet service disruption after the undersea cable failed in Ivory Coast on March 14, 2024.

The cable cuts in the Red Sea — EIG, Seacom, AAE-1 also impacted the capacity on the East Coast of Africa.

Some of the affected countries are in Western and Central Africa, including Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and Niger.

However, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said the affected undersea cables have been restored.

NCC said in a notice to Nigerians on Monday that “Following the disruption on March 14, 2024, which affected data and voice services due to cuts in undersea fibre optics along the coasts of Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, we are pleased to announce that services have now been restored to approximately 90 per cent of their peak utilisation capacities.

“All operators who were impacted by the cuts have taken recovery capacity from submarine cables which were not impacted by the cuts, and have thus recovered approximately 90 per cent of their peak utilisation capacities.”

The regulator however noted that network operators explained to the commission that voice and internet services will work optimally when the cables are fully restored.

“Mobile Network Operators have assured the commission that data and voice services would operate optimally pending full repairs of the undersea cables as they have managed to activate alternative connectivities to bring back the situation to normalcy.

“We extend our appreciation to telecom consumers for their patience and understanding during the downtime caused by the undersea fibre cuts,” said NCC.