UPDATE 16:20:
We have had a notification that there is a further break in the UK on the WACS cable. We hope to receive clarity on the end-to-end problem in the next few hours as previous reports indicated issues in the Congo area. This outage appears to have multiple problems.
The cable break near the Congo will be attended to this weekend. A ship is being loaded and will be dispatched to deal with both WACS and SAT-3 breaks. There has been no further update on the UK side break as yet.
UPDATE: 17 January 2020, 8:18 AM
Engineers have ascertained that the SAT3/WACS break is in the Libreville, Gabon, Vicinity and the WACS cable break has been isolated to the Congo between two repeater sites. Further tests are being conducted by the upstream provider along with the cable consortium's.
Our providers are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, however there is currently no ETR (Estimated Time for Resolution). Our network engineers are also doing everything possible to minimise the impact to clients. We sincerely thank affected clients for their patience and understanding as this issue is addressed.
mybroadband.co.za 16 January 2020
Many South African Internet users are currently experiencing slow speeds when connecting to international websites.
This is due to the West Africa Cable System (WACS) and South Atlantic 3 (SAT3) international links reportedly being down, which affects customers of numerous South African ISPs.
These ISPs include Webafrica, Afrihost, and Mind The Speed, all of whom have posted network status updates citing the international cable outage as the cause of slow international connections.
“There is currently a major international outage affecting WACS and EASSy cable systems,” Mind The Speed stated.
“WACS (West Africa Cable System) and SAT3 international links are reported to be down at the moment. Webafrica as well as other ISP’s are affected by this confirmed cable break,” Webafrica said on Twitter.
WACS is a submarine cable which links South Africa with the United Kingdom. It has 14 landing points – 12 along the western coast of Africa and two in Europe.
The SAT3 cable links South Africa to Portugal and Spain, and also includes landing points at several West African countries.
It is not yet clear when the cable outages will be resolved and international Internet speeds will be returned to normal.
