Real reason for network downtime in Nigeria on Thursday

 

 From Moshood Karim

On Thursday, there was a significant disruption to three subsea cables along the West Coast of Africa, which caused a major impact on internet connectivity in Nigeria, Ghana, and several other countries across the continent. 

The cables, Uptown Press learned, are a crucial part of the telecommunications infrastructure in the region and are responsible for carrying the vast majority of the internet traffic between Africa and Europe.

As a result of the disruption, telecommunications customers and banking clients faced significant inconvenience, with online transactions and internet connectivity being brought to a halt. 

This disruption had a major impact on businesses and individuals who rely heavily on the internet for their day-to-day operations.

The exact cause of the disruption is still unknown, but experts believe that it may have been caused by a number of factors, including damage to the cables caused by fishing trawlers and other vessels, as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes and undersea landslides. 

Efforts are currently underway to repair the damaged cables, but it is expected to take several days or even weeks before internet connectivity is fully restored in the affected countries.

 In the meantime, telecommunications companies and other service providers are working to find alternative solutions to ensure that their customers are able to stay connected.

However, on Friday telecommunications operators in the country apologised to users for outages on their different networks.

The appeal was made in a statement signed by the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr Gbenga Adebayo and Executive Secretary of ALTON, Mr Gbolahan Awonuga.