Internet Outrage Hits All African Games Due To Undersea Cable Disruptions

*Nigerian journalists, Others Lament Poor Services

The ongoing 13th African Games holding in Accra, Ghana, has suffered heavy setbacks following a national network breakdown which has made data services inaccessible and by extension slowing down the pace of activities in the games.

At the Media Center in the University of Ghana, media practitioners who were trying to use the internet service as at Thursday experienced slow network services as some journalists were either unable to send reports to their editors or had to send those reports late.

Local journalists in Ghana, who were able to travel down to their offices, had to do that but international journalists were the most affected as some of them started switching from their current network service provider to another to see if the job can be done.

The National Communication Authority (NCA) in Ghana and the Nigerian counterpart, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) late on Thursday, officially issued respective statements acknowledging that it’s an international issue as a result of disruptions affecting multiple undersea cables responsible for carrying international traffic in Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire and with some disruptions in Portugal too.

NCA and the NCC further apologize through the statements to telecoms consumers of mobile and fixed data services while assuring customers that the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are working round the clock to ensure that full services is restored in the nearest time.

Meanwhile, some officials and journalists at the African Games who tried to use the services of Bolt and Yango were also hit by the national disruption, as network services failed consistently making it impossible for those services to be provided.

Financial transactions in Accra and cities in Nigeria were not left out as mobile money transactions were affected as well as the POS services which led to making holders of cash the only persons who could do any transaction in Ghana and Nigeria.

A statement from the Nigerian Communications Commission Thursday night says “operators of these cables have commenced repairs already, and services are gradually being restored.

“They have promised to work round the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.

“It is important to bring this information to the knowledge of corporate and individual consumers on these services.”

The glitches also affected the updating of the medal tables on the official website of the African Games by the LOC, as it was observed that some results which were accomplished were yet to be updated on the website as at time of filing this report.

Activities of the African Games continues today (Friday), as athletes, media practitioners as well as officials are hopeful that normalcy will be restored soon to enable the African Games continue smoothly as envisaged by the LOC.