SA-BASED SHIP OFF TO REPAIR SUBSEA INTERNET CABLES

It might take a while to get there, but Cape Town-based Leon Thevenin is off to the Ivory Coast to help fix the internet.

The cable repair ship left Cape Town harbour on Tuesday evening and will arrive in Abidjan on 29 March. The ship was mobilised by the Africa Coast to Europe and West Africa Cable System consortiums.

South Africa was left with widespread internet outages after the cables subsea were damaged. The break of four cables affected South Africa and several other West African countries on 14 March.

Luckily, the impact on South Africa’s internet access was compounded by a break to the Seacom cable situated in the Red Sea. This break already took place in February.

News24 reports that subsea fibre-optic cables are crucial pieces of infrastructure that enable the internet in South Africa to function by enabling the rapid transfer of vast quantities of information across long distances.

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