The West Africa Cable System (Wacs) has begun carrying traffic again after a cable break off the coast of England last week interrupted services between South Africa, and other African countries, and Europe.
An update on Twitter from the South African National Research & Education Network, a big user of Wacs bandwidth, on Friday said: “We are seeing recovery of the … Wacs links as of 7.13am this morning. We are hoping this is the permanent recovery.”
In a subsequent tweet, it said: “Post-recovery checks are being conducted and therefore the connectivity may be interrupted briefly at times. We are awaiting final clearance that all is well.”
The repairs were scheduled to be completed sometime on Friday after Tata Communications sent the cable repair ship, the Ile D’Aix, to attend to the problem.
TechCentral reported last Saturday that Wacs had suffered another break — its third this year — at the worst possible time for South Africa, with many people relying on home broadband connections to work during the three-week Covid-19 national lockdown.
In the interim, telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers have been making use of diverse routes on other cable systems, including Seacom and the South Atlantic Cable System, or Sacs. — (c) 2020 NewsCentral Media