South Africa’s internet connectivity of late has been abysmal, thanks to a pair of breaks in the undersea cables that supply us with our connectivity. Many internet service providers have thus had to do some routing workarounds just to keep us connected – but that’s come at the expense of speed and latency.
“This catastrophe, that caused South African internet users reduced speed on international browsing and impacted international voice calling and mobile roaming, occurred in the early hours of 16 January 2020. South Africans can now breathe a sigh of relief as international connectivity capacity returns to normal, ” says Openserve in a press release.
Well, that’s no longer a problem. According to Openserve and the SA National Research Network, connectivity has been completely restored, with the fault in the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT3/WASC) repaired.
“In the early hours of this morning (approximately 01:30) Openserve received confirmation, from aboard cable ship Leon Thevenin, that the portion of the SAT3/WASC repair offshore Congo has now been completed. This concludes a long and complex restoration process of an unprecedented simultaneous cable break of two Atlantic Ocean based submarine cable systems…”
The Leon Thevenin will now move on to the West African Cable System (WACS) cable, with repair on that scheduled to be completed by 25 February. According to Openserve, traffic on WACS isn’t affected by its power-related faults
It’s been just over a month since the breaks happened, resulting in poor connectivity for most south African users. It may be a while yet before speeds return to normal though, as ISPs will have to change their routing to accommodate for restored connectivity on SAT3/WASC.
Last Updated: February 19, 2020
Pariah
February 19, 2020 at 10:12
The WACS cable was fixed first… Both the UK and the Congo breaks. SAT-3 was the last outstanding part to be repaired.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38872984836e465c74ebf5ba6c2e89903bac8c3159c95cbd82da4544024d1e60.png
MechMachine
February 19, 2020 at 10:46
I’ve seen some advertising going around for 5g, wonder if it’s going to be any good ?
Original Heretic
February 19, 2020 at 10:57
I still wonder if it’s going to be safe…
Son of Banana Jim
February 19, 2020 at 10:52
I don’t know about you guys but I connect to the internet via courier pigeons….
Allykhat
February 19, 2020 at 11:20
I hear thats faster than Telkom 😛
Allykhat
February 19, 2020 at 11:20
I have been largely fine since the ISPs routed traffic through the East African cables, but the last 3 days have been an absolute dog show from a speed perspective… Neither Afrihost nor Openserve are able to tell me why either, which is weird.
D@rCF0g
February 19, 2020 at 11:34
I never really felt the issue on my side with my ISP! I know some were getting terrible International speeds. Mine was a-okay!
Pariah
February 19, 2020 at 10:12
The WACS cable was fixed first… Both the UK and the Congo breaks. SAT-3 was the last outstanding part to be repaired.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38872984836e465c74ebf5ba6c2e89903bac8c3159c95cbd82da4544024d1e60.png
Geoffrey Tim
February 19, 2020 at 10:30
Stable, but there’s a power shunt problem that needs to be fixed still.
Pariah
February 19, 2020 at 11:02
Ah I’ve not read about that. Fair enough
The D
February 19, 2020 at 12:04
Yay! I can watch funeral porn on Mournhub again!
Jacques Van Zyl
February 19, 2020 at 12:11
Funeral porn sounds like a sub genre of metal. Pornogrind is a thing, and so is funeral doom metal, so it’s not a stretch.
Pariah
February 19, 2020 at 12:27
This is a sad tale, indeed.
The D
February 19, 2020 at 13:00
Yeah but with a happy ending for me at least.
Irfaan Tuch Deveroux
February 19, 2020 at 18:13
A few things you should have learned from this:
If you were down, start thinking of another ISP who is not subjected to only one option and can still keep you connected
Not all ISP ate true ISP, use this experience or example next time if your searching for a reliable ISP: what do you have in place as a contingency plan
Some ISP doesn’t come cheap, but this is certainly a great lesson for businesses who might have lost revenue due to the lost in connectivity to their overseas counterparts and or markets.
Online Shopping were certainly exposed
Footnote
The Coronavirus played it’s part????
Well it certainly didn’t last because it’s made in China
Mike Batista
February 19, 2020 at 19:01
Lol been restored ??? You have to be joking . 300 ping to london with 100% packet loss ??? Afrihost is my ISP. Previous ping to london was 140 . Message afrihost with no reply whatsoever. Lekker . #eskominthemaking