The Nigeria Communications Commission has verified that many African internet companies had issues because of cuts in undersea cables. outages A few submarine cables were cut, but cable companies are actively trying to reconnect everything.
The telecom regulator said this in a statement by Reuben Muoka, the Director of Public Affairs, on Thursday.
The NCC named the affected companies as West African Cable System, African Coast to Europe, SAT3, and MainOne, all of which had downtime.
The disruptions were caused by incidents in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, which then affected Portugal.
The commission also mentioned similar problems with other undersea cable routes, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway, and Asia-Africa-Europe 1.
The regulator mentioned that similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway, and Asia-Africa-Europe 1, were also cut near the Red Sea, causing service issues along these routes.
Many users expressed frustration on social media on Thursday, reporting issues with phone calls and online services.
Despite the problems, the NCC assured the public that cable operators are working on repairs and services are slowly coming back online.
The commission said, “These cable operators have already started making repairs, and services are slowly being restored. They have promised to work around the clock to restore services to the affected countries as quickly as possible.
“It is important to inform corporations and consumers about these services.”
MTN Nigeria, the leading telecom provider in the country, acknowledged the situation and appealed to its subscribers.
The company also assured them that it is making efforts to resolve the issue and restore services as quickly as possible.
A few weeks ago, a similar issue occurred where major operators across the country, including MTN, Airtel, and 9mobile, grappled with a widespread network connection crisis.
The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, told The PUNCH that the connectivity issue was due to significant fibre cuts made by road contractors employed by the Federal Government.
The ALTON chairman said, “There have been significant fibre cuts across the country, and this has impacted connectivity today, but efforts are being made by affected telecom operators to rectify this situation.”
