The enduring ordeal faced by both corporate and individual internet users in Nigeria, which began on Thursday, shows no sign of abating anytime soon, as recent reports suggest that the service disruption could extend for an additional five weeks.
MainOne, one of the undersea cable companies affected by the service disruptions, stated in a Friday evening announcement that it might take two to three weeks to resolve the issue. The company explained that investigations revealed an external incident causing a cut in the submarine cable system in the ocean.
According to MainOne, rectifying the fault, obtaining necessary spares for repair, and sailing to the fault location may take one to two weeks, while an additional two to three weeks of transit time may be needed for the vessel to pick up the spares and travel from Europe to West Africa once mobilized.
Amidst massive internet outages crippling other networks, internet providers in Nigeria have turned to telecommunications company Globacom. Fortunately, Glo 1, solely owned by Globacom, remains unaffected by the damage and continues to operate normally.
Data users, internet service providers, and financial institutions relying on Glo 1 have experienced seamless operations. Conversely, telecommunication companies and some banks, reliant on the affected cables for internet services, experienced several hours of downtime.
The damage, as per industry reports, impacted major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, leading to internet downtime across West and South African countries. The affected cables include the West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3. Industry observers have commended the resilience of the Glo 1 International Submarine Cable, which shielded it from the reported damage.
