MainOne, a prominent Internet Network Provider, has announced that the repair work on the recently compromised submarine cable may extend for up to five weeks. The disruption, which occurred on Thursday, has significantly impacted the Nigerian banking sector, as MainOne serves as a crucial internet service provider for these institutions.
Initial investigations by MainOne suggest that the fault was triggered by an external event, leading to a severance along the West African coast within the Atlantic Ocean, near Cote D’Ivoire. This outage has directly affected major Nigerian banks, resulting in disruptions to customers’ access to online banking services and USSD transactions.
Catering to a diverse clientele including commercial and microfinance institutions, major telecom operators, ISPs, government bodies, businesses of various scales, and educational entities, MainOne has pledged to expedite the repair process. The company aims to swiftly restore network connectivity to alleviate inconveniences faced by its customers during this period.
MainOne has outlined its repair strategy, indicating that the Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement will facilitate the process. This entails inspecting and testing cable joints while meticulously repositioning the cable on the seabed. A dedicated vessel will be deployed to transport necessary components from Europe to West Africa, with the journey expected to span approximately five weeks.
While submarine cable damages are often attributed to human activities such as fishing and anchoring, as well as natural phenomena like earthquakes and landslides, MainOne believes human interference is improbable in this instance. The fault’s location, situated at a depth of about 3 km and its considerable distance from the shore, supports this assertion.
MainOne stated, “Our preliminary analysis suggests some form of seismic activity on the seabed resulted in a break to the cable, but we will obtain more data when the cable is retrieved during the repair exercise.”
