The West African Cable System (WACS) has been successfully repaired following damages caused by an underwater landslide earlier this year. The incident affected four crucial cables off the west coast of Africa, resulting in cuts and disruptions across the continent. With this repair, only the MainOne cable remains to be restored.
Repair Details:
WACS: Spanning 14,530 km, this cable links Portugal to South Africa, passing through 12 African countries with 13 landing points. Its restoration has enabled connectivity to be restored from Portugal to the UK via a pair of dedicated fibers in an existing cable.
SAT-3 and ACE: The SAT-3 cable was repaired by Orange Marine Leon Thevenin last month, while ACE is now operational following repairs, though there have been no official announcements regarding this.
MainOne: The final cable yet to be restored is MainOne, with CS Sovereign leading the repair efforts. It is expected to be fully operational by May 11.
The damage to these four cables (WACS, MainOne, SAT-3, and ACE) was caused by a possible submarine landslide near Ivory Coast, resulting in widespread cuts throughout the region. Affected clients included Mweb, Openserve, Seacom, Telkom, Vodacom, Vumatel, and Vox.
The cuts left Vodacom’s data network in South Africa out of service for two hours. Companies were able to partially restore services by redirecting traffic to operational cables like Google’s Equiano system.
The successful repair of the WACS cable marks a significant step towards restoring connectivity in the region. The community of businesses and organizations overseeing the repair work is diligently working to complete the restoration of MainOne as soon as possible, while continuing to investigate the exact causes of the initial damage.
Source: Totaltele (https://totaltele.com/west-african-subsea-cables-finally-repaired/)