Slow internet? Bad pings? Tiger King stuck buffering on Netflix? It’s not just you – a cable break over the weekend has disrupted connectivity for users on multiple ISP networks, at the worst time ever.
Inconveniently coinciding with South Africa’s pandemic lockdown and the corresponding increase in online traffic, the new West Africa Cable System (WACS) break is like the cherry on the shit sundae of current events. What next, booze and cigarettes are cancelled? Excuse me, I should take this call.
…
Oh.
According to MyBroadband and local network operations updates on Twitter, a team is en route to the site between the UK and Portugal, and is expected to commence repair work tomorrow with an estimated fix by Saturday 4 April.
WACS Outage Update: Cable vessel, the “Ile D’Aix”, underway to the SV8 (Highbridge UK) side cable break. ETA at cable ground – Tue 31/03/2020 09h00 UTC. Estimated repair date: Sat 04/04/2020. The approximate position of “Ile D’Aix” on its journey is as attached. pic.twitter.com/rY5YdOcq9s
— SA NREN Operational Updates & Alerts (@RENAlerts) March 30, 2020
Have a super week.