Kenya’s telecoms regulator has warned that the internet disruptions that hit East Africa on Sunday will persist for days and asked service providers to use alternative routes.
Homes and businesses in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and a host of other countries are experiencing slow internet speeds following a cut on deep-sea fibre cables at Mtunzini, a small coastal town in South Africa.
The fault affected submarine cables serving Kenya, largely privately-controlled Seacom and East Africa Submarine System (Eassy), the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) said Monday.
“We wish to inform individual and corporate consumers that the recovery process has since commenced but intermittency and slow speeds may remain in the coming days before services are fully restored,” David Mugonyi, the CA director-general, said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, the Authority has directed service providers to take proactive steps to secure alternative routes for their traffic and is monitoring the situation closely to ensure that the incoming and outbound internet connectivity is available.”
Fibre-optic technology offers faster high-speed internet connectivity compared with other broadband options.
The technology has made a possible reliable internet connection in the country, facilitating remote working and making Kenya a leader in the rapidly-evolving digital economy.
4G, 5G networks
Leading service providers such as Safaricom, Airtel and Jamii Telecommunications have laid tens of thousands of kilometres of fibre-optic cables across major towns targeting to connect homes and businesses.
This has enabled telecom companies to roll out 4G and 5G mobile networks providing faster internet speeds for the much needed services such as video streaming.
The regulator says the Sunday downtime has not affected The East Africa Marine System (TEAMs) cable — majority owned by the Kenyan Government —which has now been tapped for domestic traffic flow.
Further capacity is available on the redundant South Africa route, which has been activated to minimise the impact of the cut on Seacom and Eassy submarine cables, the communications agency added.
Leading operator, Safaricom, said on its X platform account that it had “activated redundancy measures to minimise service interruption”, but clarified that resolution on “a network challenge” was ongoing.
