Slow internet as Openserve undersea cables fail
Internet users in South Africa have been hit with slow internet since Thursday after two key undersea cables that connect South Africa to the global internet were both hit by separate failures.
The South Atlantic 3/West Africa (SAT-3/Wasc) submarine cable, which links Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the way, has been hit by a breakdown near Libreville, Gabon.
Meanwhile the West Africa Cable System (Wacs), which links South Africa with the United Kingdom, also along the west coast of Africa, saw an outage off the coast of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In a written statement, infrastructure provider OpenServe said international voice calling and mobile roaming has also been impacted.
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"The unusual and simultaneous dual cable break has resulted in customers, that are connected to Openserve’s global capacity clients, experiencing reduced speed on international browsing. International voice calling and mobile roaming has also been impacted.
"Openserve appreciates the patience of all affected clients and their customers as undersea cable infrastructure repairs are complex and can be time consuming."
A number of internet service providers (ISP) have been affected, including Afrihost and WebAfrica.
Network status update:
— Afrihost (@Afrihost) January 17, 2020
Openserve earlier ascertained that the SAT3/WACS break is in the Libreville, Gabon, Vicinity and the WACS cable break has been isolated to the Congo between two repeater sites. Further tests are being conducted by the upstream provider. Updates to follow. pic.twitter.com/8CC7JVRgC1
WACS (West Africa Cable System) and SAT3 international links are reported to be down at the moment. Webafrica as well as other ISP's are affected by this confirmed cable break
— Webafrica (@webafrica) January 16, 2020
