Repairs to the Africa Coast to Europe (Ace) subsea cable, one of three cables scheduled for repair by the crew of French cable-laying vessel Léon Thévenin, have started.
This is according to pan-African telecommunications infrastructure provider and MTN Group subsidiary Bayobab.
“The repair vessel Leon Thévenin is currently stationed at the Ace repair cable grounds, and southern break repair work is actively under way. Their dedicated teams are working diligently to ensure the swift and efficient restoration of the Ace cable system,” said Bayobab in an e-mail to TechCentral in response to questions.
Initial reports regarding subsea cable breaks off Africa’s west coast only mentioned the West African Cable System (Wacs) and the older Sat-3 as having sustained damage. It was only about 10 days later, that news about damage to the Ace cable emerged.
Fortunately, the Léon Thévenin completed repairs to the Wacs cable last week, meaning that once the Ace repairs are also done, repairs to Sat-3, which offers limited international capacity compared to Wacs and Ace, will be all that remains on the vessel’s schedule.
“The repair operations for the Wacs cable were successfully completed on 5 September at 7pm SAST. We are pleased to report that our traffic has been rerouted and fully restored. This restoration ensures continued connectivity for the regions served by the Wacs cable system,” said Bayobab.
Bayobab does not use Sat-3 and said it can’t comment on when repairs to that cable will begin. A spokesman for Sat-3 investor Telkom wasn’t immediately able to provide an update. – © 2023 NewsCentral Media
