Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed why there was internet service disruption on Thursday.
Gatekeepers News reports that the NCC said damaged international undersea cables caused the Internet service disruption in Nigeria and other countries.
The Commission disclosed this in a statement issued on Thursday night by its Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka.
The NCC, while narrating the incident that led to the internet service disruption that Nigerians and some other West African countries experienced on Thursday.
The Commission said, “A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, have negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, among others.
“The cuts occurred somewhere in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal.
“Cable companies – West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe have experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.”
According to the NCC, similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE1), were said to have been cut at some point around the Red Sea, resulting in degradation of services across on these routes.
Bank customers and telecom subscribers bared the brunt of the internet service disruption as many could not transact businesses on their accounts.
Apologising to its customers over their experience, MTN in a statement issued on Thursday, said, “We apologize for the challenges you may be experiencing with internet speed and accessing data services at the moment.
“This is as a result of damage to international undersea cables across East & West Africa. The repair process is ongoing to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Please look out for further updates.”
However, as of the time of filing this report, the Internet is gradually being restored as the banks’ apps have begun to open for transactions.
Similarly, other Internet activities are gradually connecting, although not at their best.
