Many east Africa businesses lose Internet access due to SEACOM undersea cable fault

SEACOM, a regional Internet access company that claims to ‘connect Africa to the world’, has experienced a serious fault with an undersea cable. The impact is being felt across east Africa and also in various parts of Asia and Europe, with many business and other users losing their Internet access.

The fault occurred on July 6 and has yet to be rectified.

SEACOM’s latest briefing on the situation is replicated below:

SEACOM OPERATIONAL UPDATE
8 Jul 2010
SEACOM's technical team has identified the exact location of the fault and the repair process has been fully mobilised. The faulty section of the cable is at one of the deepest points along its route, some 4700m deep. This may require for robotics to be deployed to locate and retrieve the cable for repairs to be undertaken on board the specialised repair ship before replacing the cable back on the ocean floor.

The specialised repair ship is being deployed but information on its whereabouts and the exact timeline of the repairs cannot be made available as the repair process is managed by the contractors. This is common practice in the industry. Whilst the repair process is expected to continue for several days, the actual completion date remains unknown due to several factors such as transit time of the ship, weather conditions and time to locate the cable.

SEACOM has successfully sourced and activated restoration capacity on other cable networks servicing eastern and southern Africa and will continue to work closely with all parties to ensure that restoration capacity is made available to additional clients requiring it.

http://www.seacom.mu

•Date: 9th July 2010 • Region: Africa •Type: Article •Topic: Telecoms continuity
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