MainOne May Restore Submarine Cable Earlier Than Schedule

MainOne is working to restore its full operations earlier than expected after submarine cable outage disrupted the services. Mainone, on Tuesday, blamed its submarine cable outage 3000KM offshore Portugal as the cause of the outage; the first of its kind in seven years since the cable system came into operations.

According to industry standards, such repairs could last for 14 days, but, Mainone told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek they are working round the clock to restore full services within ten days.

The incidence occurred early in the morning of Sunday June 18th, 2017.

Confirming the report, Mr Temi Osunrinde, marketing communications lead, MainOne, said that the Company experiences fault on the submarine cable system, 3000KM offshore Portugal which has caused disruptions in service to its international connectivity customers in West Africa.

He said that the team of engineers, swiftly, moved to site to ensure customers have reprieves, adding that they could restore full capacity within the next ten days.

“Supported by our cable maintenance arrangement with the Atlantic Cable Maintenance & Repair Agreement (ACMA), we immediately mobilized a repair vessel from France early Monday morning to pick up the necessary spares and personnel to recover the affected sections of the submarine cable in the Atlantic Ocean and effect repairs. The current estimated time for the repairs may be up to 14 days.

“We said 14 days because that the industry best practices, but full capacity could be restored within ten days. We are working round the clock to ensure customers get reprieve”, he said on telephone.

The Company said that whilst this is an event of Force Majeure, being beyond their control in the ordinary and normal course of business, the management has in the interim, made available existing restoration capacity and have secured additional capacity to offer temporary relief to the customers, where feasible.

“We will continue to provide updates on the progress of the repair works as we assure our customers that all hands are on deck to fully restore all services and the MainOne quality that they have come to rely on. We thank you for your understanding and apologize for the inconveniences caused”, he said.