Millions of Canalbox customers across Africa are experiencing sluggish internet connectivity following major cuts of the company’s submarine cables in West Africa, the company has publicly acknowledged.
"Submarine cables in West Africa have been cut, affecting many internet service providers. Technical teams are working to restore service in the shortest time possible,” Canalbox Rwanda said on X post.
The disruptions in Canalbox internet services, which started on Thursday 14, led to a widespread outage across the continent with customers expressing grievances.
Canalbox is a fiber-based internet services provider operating across Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda, Togo, Gabon, Congo, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to a CanalBox customer who preferred to remain anonymous, issues of slow speed and unresponsive internet have been ongoing for the past three days.
Canalbox said it was utilising its back-up links to ensure availability of internet as it works to restore the service.
"Our back up links will ensure continuity of service, but during this time you may experience slowness. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” the company’s subsidiary in Rwanda said on X post.
During a press conference on Thursday evening, David Serugendo, Customer Experience Manager at Canal Box, emphasized that clients should understand that the issue is continental and is being addressed accordingly.
Reports from Bloomberg revealed that the West Africa Cable System, MainOne, and ACE sea cables, crucial for telecommunications data transmission, were affected, leading to outages and connectivity issues for mobile operators and internet service providers.
Microsoft Corp. also experienced disruptions to its cloud services and Microsoft 365 applications across Africa.
Microsoft confirmed that multiple fiber cables on the west coast of Africa and the Red Sea cable cuts were impacting the east coast, resulting in reduced capacity supporting their regions in South Africa. "Repair efforts are underway, but the combination of incidents has affected all Africa capacity, including other cloud providers and public internet services.”
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Last year, similar disruptions occurred when the West African Cable System and the South Atlantic 3 were damaged near the mouth of the Congo River following an undersea landslide, taking about a month to repair.
According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the largest technical professional organization globally dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, when fiber optic cables are severed, data transmission along the affected cable is interrupted, resulting in the loss of internet connectivity and communication services.
The repair process involves identifying the break, splicing the fibers back together, and restoring the connection. The duration of this procedure can vary significantly, ranging from a few hours to several months, depending on the extent of the damage incurred.
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