WorldStage Newsonline– As combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, among others, Telecommunications operators in Nigeria have apologised to users over outages on their different networks.
Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) in a statement signed by the Director, of Public Affairs, Mr. Reuben Muoka said 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.
He said, 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 these routes.
“In Nigeria and other West African countries, Internet access and speed have experienced disruptions in the networks of service providers in the affected countries.
“Operators of these cables have commenced repairs already, and services are gradually being restored.
“They have promised to work round the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.
It is important to bring this information to the knowledge of corporate and individual consumers on these services.”
TELCOS APOLOGISE
A statement signed by the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr Gbenga Adebayo and Executive Secretary of ALTON, Mr Gbolahan Awonuga 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.
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.
“We seek for your continuous understanding on behalf of our members, “he said.
