Photo Credit: Steve Song. Title: African Undersea Cables in 2021 – maybe (Version 48). [CC BY 2.0] (Cropped)
South Africa (SA) was hit with an unusual internet predicament. Two of the four undersea cables connecting SA to the world was damaged separately, yet at round about at the same time.
Undersea Cables
The two cables called the West Africa Cable System (WACS) and the South Atlantic 3 (SAT3) both run along the west coast of Africa.
WACS connects SA to the UK with its connection point to SA at Yzerfontein, Western Cape. SAT3 connects South Africa with Spain and Portugal. Its connection is at Melkbosstrand, also in the Western Cape. Both have a lot of connections to other African countries along the way.
If you want to know more about where and how these cables are laid around the world, read about it here.
Here is another website explaining the undersea cables and its history.
Breaks
Internet service provider Webafrica stated that they and all other service providers experience significant disruptions because of breaks in the SAT3 and WACS cables. The breaks happened on Thursday, 9th of January 2020.
The WACS break is close to Luanda, Angola. Luanda is just north of Sangano, Angola, one of the points where WACS meets land.
About 2,000km North of Sangano is the SAT3 break. The break is close to the landing point at Libreville, Gabon.
Impact on South Africa
Traffic from outside South Africa which includes internet services, websites and virtual private networks (VPNs) are affected with slow response times and reduced speeds. Mobile roaming and voice calling internationally are also affected.
The reason for slower speeds and not a complete blackout is rerouting of the traffic through other cables. Technically, the speeds should be the same, but changing to other routes as well as the intricacy of connections between the different service providers are causing the delays SA is facing right now.
ISP’s most affected
Companies like Telkom, MTN, Vodacom, Afrihost and possibly a lot more has been affected, as seen on Downdetector.
To keep an eye on outages yourself, have a look on https://downdetector.co.za/ or download their App on the Apple App Store and on Google Play. Use this tool to assess whether it’s only you experiencing the problem, or others as well. The higher the number of reports, the more likely the problem lies with the cable breaks in the Atlantic.
Repairs
It is understood by TechCentral that ships were sent to repair the damage. The cause is still unknown.
Closing
If you access a lot of international websites and services, don’t get mad at your ISPs for the slow speeds. The problem lies deep beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and far beyond what they can control. We all hope this can be resolved soon.
