NCA Gives Breakdown On Undersea Cable Disruptions Affecting Data Services
The National Communications Authority (NCA) under the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization has given clear and vivid explanation as to why the country has been experiencing challenges with regards to data services, among others.
The explanation revealed that, all subsea cable landing service providers in Ghana (ACE, MainOne, SAT-3 and WACS) were completely cut off from international data services adding that, the disruption has affected cables responsible for carrying international traffic.
The Authority was however quick to give the breakdown of other African countries namely, Benin, Liberia, Ivory Coast affected by similar situation and even worse.
“The disruptions affecting multiple undersea cables responsible for carrying international traffic have occurred in Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire and with some disruptions in Portugal. This has led to a significant degradation of data services across the country.”
“It is important to note that the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have redundancies on other cables and are working around the clock to restore full services. In addition, the MNOs have informed affected customers of the disruptions via various channels” the statement clarified.
In terms of solution to the issue, NCA in an official statement said, intense work is underway to restore internet connectivity, which the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are leveraging on local content from Ghana Internet Exchange to provide efficient data services.
“The NCA continues to monitor the situation and is working around the clock with MNOs, subsea cable landing service providers and all relevant stakeholders to provide timelines when available, with regards to full restoration of data services. The public will be informed of any new developments.”
Meanwhile, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has attributed the difficulty in accessing internet connectivity to outages on multiple submarine optic fibre cables that come into Ghana.
According to the Chamber, some of the cables are down while others are delivering limited capacity.
It said the development is impacting the internet, data, and Voice Over IP services of the mobile network operators and data service providers to varying degrees.
“As a result, customers and subscribers are currently experiencing service challenges. The inconvenience to customers is deeply regretted” the statement said.
Also, MTN and Telecel formerly Vodafone have since apologised to their consumers and have assured that they were working round the clock to ensure that internet connectivity is restored.
The company assured that it is working to resolve the issue.
“This is due to a disruption on our international undersea cables. Our technical teams are working with our international partners to resolve the issue”, a statement from MTN Ghana said.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience and will keep subscribers updated,” the MTN statement said.
NCA’s Update 3 Full Statement
The National Communications Authority (NCA) updates the public on the disruption to data services as a result of undersea cable outages which occurred on 14th March 2024.
As mentioned yesterday, all subsea cable landing service providers in Ghana (ACE, MainOne, SAT-3 and WACS) were completely cut off from international data services. This outage has affected data services in the West African sub-region. Preliminary investigations indicate that these incidents may have occurred between Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal.
As at the time of this update, all four (4) subsea cables from Ghana to Europe through Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal are still out of service.
The Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and subsea cable landing service providers continue to work with international partners within the sub-region whose cables have not been impacted by the current outage to provide some connectivity while troubleshooting and restoration work progresses. Additionally, the MNOs are also leveraging on local caches (like content from the Ghana Internet Exchange (GIX) and other local in-house caches), to provide efficient data services.
The NCA continues to monitor the situation and is working around the clock with MNOs, subsea cable landing service providers and all relevant stakeholders to provide timelines when available, with regards to full restoration of data services.
The public will be informed of any new developments.
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