Internet disruption: Network now stable, but repair still ongoing, says MainOne

By Abubakar Yunusa

MainOne, a West African digital infrastructure service provider, says there is stability on its network across the region.
In a statement on Monday, the service provider said it worked with regional partners last week and over the weekend to reroute traffic with restoration capacity.
“We worked with regional partners late last week and over the weekend to reroute traffic with restoration capacity and our observations are that we have stability on our network across the region this morning,” MainOne said.
These developments, it said, represent a significant milestone to ensure continued connectivity for the West African business community.
However, MainOne said repair is still ongoing and it is actively working with its maintenance partners, vessel owners and permitting authorities to expedite the restoration of the subsea cable.
It expressed optimism that the cable will be repaired as planned and services fully restored, so it can continue to operate with continued integrity of the submarine cable.
“We want to assure the West African business community and the public that the region remains open for business,” MainOne said.
On March 14, subsea cable providers were affected by major cuts to undersea submarine cables, disrupting internet traffic in major parts of the continent.
This disrupted the services of banks and telecommunications companies in Nigeria.
In a statement on March 15, MainOne said repair would take between one and two weeks.
An additional two to three weeks of transit time may be required, according to the company, for a vessel to pick up the spares of submarine cables and travel from Europe to West Africa.
Speaking on the cause of the network outage, MainOne said findings showed the fault occurred due to an external incident that resulted in a cut on its submarine cable system in the Atlantic Ocean offshore Cote D’Ivoire, along the coast of West Africa.