MyBroadband reports the West African Cable System (WACS) and the South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3/WASC) undersea cables have been broken.
The two cables reportedly suffered breaks between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon due to two separate rock falls in the Congo Canyon on Sunday.
The cable ship CS Léon Thévenin has been mobilized for the deep-water repair, but could take several weeks to arrive at the break site as it is currently sailing from Kenya on the east coast of Africa and will have to sail around the Horn of Africa.
Cameroonian telco CamTel also noted the issue ; however, it said the SAT-3 cable suffered damages off the coast of Gabon and on the land section of Abidjan on the Ivory Coast.
Congo Canyon is a submarine canyon found at the end of the Congo River in Africa. It is one of the largest submarine canyons in the world, reaching depths of 1,100 meters and widths of up to nine miles (14km).
Laid in 2012, the 14,500 km WACS cable runs from South Africa to the UK, calling at 12 countries en route. Owned by a consortium of 12 carriers including MTN and Vodacom, it has a total design capacity of 14.5 Tbps.
The 13000km SAT-3/WASC cable, laid in 2001, connects South Africa to Spain and Portugal and lands at eight other countries en route. SAT-3 has a capacity of 340 Gbps and is owned by a consortium of operators including Orange (then France Telecom), AT&T-owned TCI, Sonatel, and Telcom.
The two cables previously broke off the coast of Gabon in 2020.
The two cables reportedly suffered breaks between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon due to two separate rock falls in the Congo Canyon on Sunday.
The cable ship CS Léon Thévenin has been mobilized for the deep-water repair, but could take several weeks to arrive at the break site as it is currently sailing from Kenya on the east coast of Africa and will have to sail around the Horn of Africa.
Cameroonian telco CamTel also noted the issue ; however, it said the SAT-3 cable suffered damages off the coast of Gabon and on the land section of Abidjan on the Ivory Coast.
Congo Canyon is a submarine canyon found at the end of the Congo River in Africa. It is one of the largest submarine canyons in the world, reaching depths of 1,100 meters and widths of up to nine miles (14km).
Laid in 2012, the 14,500 km WACS cable runs from South Africa to the UK, calling at 12 countries en route. Owned by a consortium of 12 carriers including MTN and Vodacom, it has a total design capacity of 14.5 Tbps.
The 13000km SAT-3/WASC cable, laid in 2001, connects South Africa to Spain and Portugal and lands at eight other countries en route. SAT-3 has a capacity of 340 Gbps and is owned by a consortium of operators including Orange (then France Telecom), AT&T-owned TCI, Sonatel, and Telcom.
The two cables previously broke off the coast of Gabon in 2020.