NCC: Voice, Data Services Affected by Undersea Cable Cuts Restored

Emma Okonji

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms industry regulator, yesterday said voice and data services that were disrupted by last week’s undersea cable cut have been restored.

On March 14, 2024, 13 African countries suffered data and voice service disruptions, following cuts in undersea fibre optics cable along the coasts of Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal,

The affected countries include: Cote d’ Ivoire, Liberia, Benin Republic, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Lesotho, and parts of South Africa.  

NetBlocks, a global internet monitoring organisation, which released its preliminary report last week, said out of the 13 affected countries, Cote d’ Ivoire was the worst hit, which led to severe internet disruptions that brought the country’s internet connectivity to as low as four per cent.

The report however said countries like Nigeria, Lesotho and South Africa, had low internet impact and businesses were mildly affected.

The affected submarine cables came from Europe, and passed through the East Coast of Africa. The West African Submarine Cable (WASC), African Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable and MainOne submarine cable that have landing ducts at the shores of Nigeria, were affected by the multiple cuts.

The development disrupted internet services in Nigeria and banks, including non-financial organisatuons were unable to carry out successful transactions for few days.

But NCC, in a statement issued yesterday and signed by its Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said services had been restored.

In the statement, NCC said: “We are pleased to announce that services have now been restored to approximately 90 per cent of operators’ 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.

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 connections 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.”