AGS NEWS – The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria has assured that voice and data services affected by the recent undersea fibre optics cut near the coasts of Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal will be fully restored by Tuesday.

Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of ALTON, revealed this in an exclusive interview on Monday.

The undersea cable cuts, which occurred last Thursday, disrupted broadband Internet connectivity to Nigeria and several West African countries, leading to operational scale-downs by banks, financial institutions, telecom companies, and related firms.

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The affected cable companies include the West African Cable System and African Coast to Europe on the West Coast route from Europe, along with SAT3 and MainOne.

To mitigate the impact, telcos, banks, and financial institutions rerouted their traffic to alternative service providers over the weekend.

While some providers have already restored services partially, others are still in the process of migration, resulting in ongoing delays and congestion.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced on Monday that services had been restored to about 90% of their peak utilization capacities.

Reuben Muoka, NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, expressed gratitude to telecom consumers for their patience during the downtime caused by the cable cuts.

Adebayo expressed confidence in the complete restoration of services by Tuesday, highlighting the extensive efforts made to minimize the disruption’s effects.

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He emphasized that the incident only affected certain routes while other operators using alternate routes remained unaffected.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, revealed plans to lead a global collaboration to enhance the protection of undersea cables, stressing the need to review international laws and foster partnerships for this purpose.

MainOne, a cable company, disclosed that the repair process for its damaged submarine cable may take up to five weeks.

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The firm has a maintenance agreement with Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement for this purpose, involving inspection, testing, and repositioning of the cable.