According to communication by some local ISPs to their customers, internet connections, which have been disrupted over the last week, causing degraded service, will be restored in mid-September.
One ISP stated that as a result of a cable fault that has arisen within the West Africa Cable System (WACS) network, occurring between Angola and Gabon plus an additional fibre cut that has been identified along the Ace cable, stretching from Sao Tome to Cape Town, connectivity will be problematic until those faults have been addressed.
BOFINET, which is an upstream provider of all ISPs in the country, is a consortium member of WACS.
"Efforts are underway to address this situation. However, it is important to note that repair ships are operating under limited availability, leading us to anticipate a timeline for restoration by mid-September," the ISP told customers.
To mitigate interruptions until the faults on WACS and Ace have been resolved, BOFINET has taken the decision to reroute internet traffic through the East Africa Cable System (EASSy) and during this rerouting, customers should expect dips in internet quality service. The timeline on the rerouting process has not been communicated.
It is important to note that compared to WACS and ACE which supports speeds of up to 15 and 12 megabits respectively, EASSy only supports speeds of up to 10 terabits. As a result of the cable further being used as a reroute path for other countries who are also affected by the faults, it might lead to slower speeds compared to forementioned cables.