With only three of the ten undersea cables that connect South Africa to the world still in operation, it is quite remarkable that the region remains as well connected as it is. This is the view of Workonline Communications, one of the leading providers of wholesale IP transit services in Africa, commenting on recent disruptions to internet connectivity across the continent due to multiple undersea cable faults.
“The cable breaks on both sides of the continent have highlighted the issue of the lack of capacity to support Africa’s burgeoning internet requirements,” says Edward Lawrence of the Workonline Group. “There are 574 active and planned submarine cables across the globe, yet South Africa only has 10 that connect it to the rest of the world, and seven of these are currently out of action.”
In February 2024, three vital cables—AAE-1, EIG, and SEACOM—connecting the east coast of Africa to Europe were disrupted, allegedly due to vandalism by the Houthis. Then, on March 14, 2024, four out of the five west coast cables—SAT3, WACS, ACE, and MainOne—were affected, reportedly by an undersea rock fall near Ivory Coast. These incidents have significantly impacted internet connectivity, not only in South Africa but across the entire continent.
The capacity constraints are further complicated by the time it takes to not only repair submarine cables, but also to lay new infrastructure. Lawrence explains that it can take 18 months or longer to plan for new cables, and a further two years or more to actually build and commission them.
“We’re fortunate that due to our investment in Africa and abroad we are able to be more nimble than most and can increase our undersea capacity at speed. We’ve designed our network to be as resilient as possible, acquiring capacity on the most stable routes we can find. Incremental capacity, or augments as they are referred to, require us to acquire hundreds of Gbps of capacity at a time, so we rely on our deep relationships which we’ve developed across the industry.”
Through strategic partnerships and investments in mega Points of Presence (PoPs) across Africa, Workonline remains at the forefront of delivering high-quality IP transit services to meet the evolving needs of ISPs and CDNs in Africa.
“We understand the critical importance of internet connectivity in today’s digital age,” added Lawrence. “As such, we are committed to proactively managing network disruptions and minimizing downtime to provide our customers with the continuity they need to thrive in a competitive landscape.”
Toe
Whoever said “quiet as a mouse”, has obviously never stepped on one
Nice Gnome
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”