A number of telecommunication companies in Ghana, including MTN Ghana and Teletel (formerly Vodafone Ghana), were hit by outages on several underwater fibre optic cables on Thursday, March 14, 2024.

This has led to a disruption in service, particularly internet service, of the affected Mobile Network Operators and the Data Service Providers.

More information is now emerging about the extent of damage and the severity of the issue.

Insider sources in Ghana’s telecommunication industry have indicated that the damage is huge.

At least 7 major African submarine optic fibre cables, the sources say have been hit, affecting telecommunication services in about 10 countries in West Africa, including Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.

Apnews.com has also reported that some telecommunication providers in South African countries, including South Africa, Namibia and Lesotho, have also been hit.

On the route from the East Coast of Africa to Europe, submarine cables including Seacom/TGN, AAE1, and EIG have all been cut in the Red Sea.

On the West Coast route to Europe, West Africa Cable System (WACS) and the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) are experiencing faults, while MainOne and SAT3 are offline, with the issue occurring near Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Apnews.com corroborates that the outages on these cables happened on Thursday.

One of the sources, however, indicated that Liquid networks are operational.

The source also indicated that issues with the outage of the cables could linger until Saturday because vessels and engineers who are to work on the challenges at hand would require not less than 3 days.

The network challenges have affected banking services, MOMO transactions, and businesses that rely on internet to operate.

BAI/OGB

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