The operators of the MainOne submarine cable system are working to repair a fault in the undersea cable detected June 18. They hope to fix the outage, first in the submarine network's seven-year history, within the next week -- although local press reports suggest that MainOne customers were quoting a repair time of approximately five days from discovery of the fault.
The fault occurred about 3,000 km offshore of Portugal and has disrupted service to customers in West Africa. MainOne says that, under the auspices of the Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement (ACMA), a repair ship left France June 19 and is currently on the scene. The company has shifted as much traffic as it can to existing restoration capacity as well as additional capacity secured for the purpose.
The company did not detail the cause of the fault, labeling it "an event of Force Majeure, being beyond our control in the ordinary and normal course of business"
The MainOne submarine cable provides connections between Europe and several nations of West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana (see "Pioneer Consulting awarded MainOne contract" and "Nigeria-Cameroun Submarine Cable System now live"). The operator contracted with Xtera in 2015 to upgrade the system with 100-Gbps capabilities (see "MainOne chooses Xtera for 100-Gbps submarine network upgrade").
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