Photo Credit: Cosal [CC BY-SA] (Cropped)
Good news South Africa! The vessel responsible for the internet cable repair is on its way to the cable break near the port of Luanda, Angola and the country Gabon.
Current Location
The last location update we received from the Leon Thevenin was at 04:07 this morning, local South African time (GMT+2).
The vessel left Cape Town harbour at about 18:45 yesterday evening (22 January) and was located close to St Helena Bay at 04:07 this morning (23 January).
You can follow the ship yourself on www.marinetraffic.com or download their App on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
The Expedition and Repair
Steaming ahead at about 11.5kn (21.3km/h), the vessel still has a long way to go. The voyage of about 6,000km will take about six days.
When on-site, the Hector 5 vehicle will be lowered to the seabed to repair the damaged cable. The repair should take about 48 hours to complete to restore a big chunk of capacity to South Africa’s internet network.
The estimated date of arrival at the WACS/SAT-3 cable grounds is 28/01/2020 in the evening.
— REN Alerts (@RENAlerts) January 22, 2020
The Vessel
Navigating the seas for the past 29 years, the Leon Thevenin has mainly been working out of the port of Cape Town since 2013 and has a cable repair record of 230 repairs in the Atlantic ocean.
It is responsible for repairing a quarter of the breaks in the Atlantic ocean and forms part of a fleet of 30 vessels doing this type of repairs.
It is owned by Orange Marine, which is a subsidiary of the Orange Group, a telecommunications corporation in France.
Find more interesting details about the vessel over at Business Insider SA.
Follow the Story
- Why the internet was so slow
- The ship not being able to leave Cape Town harbour
- Updates from three ISPs
Closing
With the Leon Thevenin on its way, the state of South Africa’s internet could improve considerably by the end of January and the frustrations of slow speeds and the struggles for businesses will start to lighten.
