The MainOne operator estimates that it could take weeks to solve the telecommunications blackout in Africa

The telecommunications operator MainOne considers that it could take up to five weeks to solve the damage that occurred in one of its submarine fiber optic cables within the framework of a series of outages that occurred in four communication networks that have seriously restricted Internet access in eight countries of central and western Africa. The NetBlocks website, specialized in monitoring the stability of international telecommunications, detected this week the problems with the West African Cable System (WACS) and its South Atlantic 3 extension, which links South Africa with the United Kingdom along the coast. West Africa; MainOne (from Portugal to South Africa) and the ACE system (Africa Coast to Europe), which links around twenty African countries with Portugal and France. Those responsible for telecommunications have agreed that this damage is not due to human activity. Everything seems to indicate rather that it has occurred due to a tectonic shift in the seabed. The company itself recognizes in the same statement the complexity of the operation to repair the cable. “This process could take between one and two weeks for repairs, while between two and three weeks of transit time may be necessary for the ship to collect spare parts and travel from Europe to West Africa once it is mobilized,” they explain. those responsible. The internet analytics firm Cloudflare already expressed its skepticism about a quick solution on Friday. “Repairs can take weeks to months, depending on where the damage is, what needs to be repaired, and sea conditions,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg. In any case, at the moment the Netblocks website has confirmed important suspensions in eight countries in the region, especially in Ivory Coast, Liberia and Benin, followed by Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. Senegal and even South Africa have also experienced difficulties in this regard.