The National Communications Authority (NCA) has announced the successful completion of repair work to all damaged submarine cable, which led to an internet blackout in Ghana in March.
The damage, which occurred on 14 March, affected internet, data and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services of telecommunication firms in Ghana.
Contained in a statement release by NCA, the authority noted that all four (4) subsea cables affected by the disruption.
“The National Communications Authority (NCA) wishes t0 inform the general public on the successful completion of repair works on all four(4) subsea cables by the March 14 disruption, affecting mobile and fixed data services nationwide. They are since operational and have been providing service at full capacity since the completion of the repair works. According to the subsea cable service providers, all four cable faults were found at the crossing with a sub-sea canyon off the coast of Abidjan called Le Trou Sans Fond Canyon”, the statement said.
The statement added that the NCA has since the March 14 incident issued furthered directive to mobile and subsea cable service providers in a bid to strengthen its regulatory oversight- and the directives include;
- A requirement for all submarine cable operators to submit their backup and redundancy plans to ensure business community and seamless connectivity to data service should their cables get cut or develop a major fault.
- All Mobile Network operators are to maintain their existing redundant submarine cable links within Ghana and to connect to a submarine cable provider in the sub-region that is currently not landing in Ghana.
“The NCA is grateful for the interest, support and understanding displayed by all stakeholders within the internet value chain; consumers, mobile network operators and the sub marine cable operators and terrestrial fibre operators (AT, MTN, ACE, MainOne, SAT-3 and C- squared etc.). You can be assured of our commitment to ensure sustainable service delivery to all users within the industry”, it stressed.
