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- Four undersea cables snapped off the coast of the Congo last month, not just the two that were widely reported.
- Undersea fibre-optic cables are critical for enabling the rapid transfer of information across long distances.
- One cable has been repaired and work is under way on repairing another.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
Four subsea cables that are crucial for providing internet services to Africa snapped off the coast of the Congo on 6 August, not just two cables as has been widely reported.
Last month, it was reported that the West Africa Cable System (WACS) and the South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) cables snapped due to a rockfall in the Congo Canyon, causing internet issues in South Africa.
But Vodacom and Bayobab, the infrastructure unit of MTN that was formerly MTN GlobalConnect, confirmed to News24 that the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) subsea cable also snapped at around the same time and was being repaired.
Vodacom spokesperson Byron Kennedy said that gravity-driven slope displacements "resulted in breaking four submarine cable systems on or about 6 Aug 2023 – WACS, ACE, SAT-3 and an Angolan domestic festoon system".
Bayobab told News24 on Friday: "The consortium has been advised that the repair vessel Léon Thévenin is currently stationed at the ACE repair cable grounds, and southern break repair work is actively under way. Their dedicated teams are working diligently to ensure the swift and efficient restoration of the ACE cable system.
"We understand the critical importance of these undersea cable systems for international data transmission and connectivity across multiple regions."
Bayobab is one of 20 companies that invested in the ACE cable. News24 asked why there was no public statement regarding the ACE cable break until now, but this was not addressed.
The ACE consortium also did not respond to the question either.
Hundreds of thousands of kilometres of thin fibre-optic cables run under the sea, and are crucial to the functioning of the internet. The cables enable the rapid transfer of information across long distances.
The WACS, SAT-3 and ACE cables are among those on the west coast of the continent which connect South Africa to the rest of the world.
Openserve, MTN, Vodacom and Cloudflare reported disruptions to their networks directly after the breaks, which the companies took steps to mitigate by re-routing traffic onto other cables.
READ MORE | Vodacom, MTN, Openserve work to minimise impact of undersea cable breaks on operations
On 5 September, nearly a month after the break, repair work was completed on the WACS cable by the Léon Thévenin, the only vessel authorised to repair that segment of the cable.
"We are pleased to report that our traffic [on the WACS] has been rerouted and fully restored. This restoration ensures continued connectivity for the regions served by the WACS cable system," Bayobab said.
READ MORE | Back up to speed: Snapped undersea cable finally fixed, bringing relief to SA internet users
When the break occurred last month, the Léon Thévenin was on the other side of the continent doing repairs to another cable near Kenya.
Kennedy said the SAT-3 cable would be repaired after the ACE cable.
"The SAT-3 repair will follow thereafter and is expected to be completed during the last week of September 2023, weather permitting," he said.
