Internet users across West Africa can breathe a sigh of relief as MainOne, a leading subsea cable operator, has successfully completed repairs on its submarine fiber lines, following a major outage in March.
The Equinix-owned company announced it has restored full operations and traffic rerouting measures after working tirelessly with international partners, maintenance crews, and maritime authorities to fix the damaged offshore cabling.
The repairs mark the end of a lengthy two-month ordeal that saw internet connectivity severely disrupted for millions across the region when multiple subsea cables were cut simultaneously off the West African coast.
MainOne’s Managing Director Funke Opeke expressed gratitude for the “support and collaboration” from stakeholders that enabled the company to complete the “necessary repairs” and “resume regular operations with the utmost integrity” of its submarine cable system.
“We are immensely grateful for the support and collaboration of our partners, the patience of our valued customers, and the unwavering commitment of our team during this outage.”
The incidents in March impacted several critical data pipelines including the West Africa Cable System (WACS), Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), SAT-3, and MainOne’s own lines – causing major outages across Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and beyond.
Internet users bore the brunt as online services slowed to a crawl or cut out entirely, crippling bank transactions, telecom operators, and businesses heavily reliant on data connectivity across the continent’s economic hub.
While some backup capacity was routed through unaffected cables, total outages persisted for weeks as specialized marine repair crews made the lengthy journey to the fault locations and worked around the clock to splice the severed lines.
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MainOne implemented its own contingency measures and traffic rerouting to “minimize the impact on its customers” during the prolonged restoration process.
The successful fix comes as a major relief to individuals and businesses in the region heavily impacted by the widespread outages. It also provides reassurance about subsea cable redundancy and repair capabilities vital for sustaining West Africa’s rapidly growing digital economy.
With the repaired lines now back at full operational capacity, Internet users can look forward to a return of reliable, high-speed connectivity – albeit with the knowledge that the apparent vulnerability of maritime infrastructure underscores the urgent need for more cables and networking resilience across the region.