Internet Outage: Cause Of MTN, Banks Network Failure Revealed

Nigerian banks and telecommunications companies are grappling with significant internet disruptions following damage to key international undersea cables.

Naija News reports that the disruptions, which began on Thursday, are attributed to damages near Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, affecting vital connectivity across West and South African countries.

The West Africa Cable System (WACS), Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3 cables are among those impacted by the incident. This has led to widespread network failures, leaving some Nigerian banks unable to process transactions and causing considerable inconvenience for customers.

Telecommunication users, particularly subscribers of MTN, have reported deteriorating data services since the onset of the disruptions. In response to mounting complaints, MTN released a statement addressing the issue, acknowledging the challenges faced by its customers and attributing the poor connectivity to the damaged undersea cables. The company has assured its subscribers of ongoing repair efforts and has promised to provide updates as the situation evolves.

“This is 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,” MTN said, apologizing for the inconvenience caused by the slow internet speeds and difficulties accessing data services.

The cable damage has not only affected Nigeria but has also led to significant internet connectivity issues in South Africa.

Local media, including My Broadband, have reported on the outage, noting that multiple undersea cables operating along Africa’s West coast are currently down. Darren Bedford, WIOCC group business development head, confirmed the outages but reassured that their capacity on the Equiano cable remains unaffected, as does their capacity on the East Coast EASSy cable. Thanks to this redundancy, WIOCC customers should not experience service interruptions.

Similarly, Vodacom, a leading South African telecom operator, has acknowledged the impact of the undersea cable failures on its network. The company issued a statement confirming the disruptions and apologizing for the intermittent connectivity issues faced by some customers. Vodacom has also urged for patience as efforts are underway to address the problem.