Infrastructure provider Openserve says it has received confirmation from aboard cable ship Leon Thevenin that repairs to the damaged portion of the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT3/WASC), offshore the Democratic Republic of Congo, have been completed.
This concludes a long and complex restoration process of an unprecedented simultaneous cable break of two Atlantic Ocean-based submarine cable systems – SAT3/WASC and the West African Cable System (WACS).
This had resulted in South African Internet users experiencing reduced international browsing speed and impacted international voice calling and mobile roaming since January.
Openserve said on Wednesday international connectivity capacity would return to normal.
The Leon Thevenin will now proceed to its next location, offshore Ghana, to undertake a power-related (shunt fault) repair on the WACS cable. This fault is not affecting traffic on WACS.
If conditions allow, the entire mission is set to be completed by about February 25.
As part of its internal close-out procedure, the relevant teams at Openserve will, over the next few weeks, analyse the full impact of this unusual dual break on its international connectivity capacity.
This exercise will be conducted with a view to minimising, and possibly mitigating, the impact on the South African broadband ecosystem should the country find itself dealing with a similar event in future.