Safaricom announces restoration of full network capacity stability after undersea cable cuts

Communication service provider Safaricom PLC has announced resumption of full network capacity stability following undersea cable cuts that affected services across the country on May 12, 2024.

In an update on Thursday, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa disclosed that the resumption of services was made possible through the acquisition of additional capacity from alternative undersea cable providers.

“We have achieved this by acquiring additional capacity from other undersea cable providers. We sincerely thank our engineers for working round the clock to keep the country connected through optimisation and quickly onboarding additional capacity from the undersea cables,” he said.

Despite the resumption, Ndegwa emphasised the ongoing vigilance of Safaricom in monitoring their network to ensure continued stability of services.

He added that the company is actively collaborating with affected undersea cable suppliers to expedite repair works for a swift resolution.

"We sincerely apologize to customers who may have experienced slower than expected speeds on our network during this period and thank them for being patient as we worked to get back to normal,” Ndegwa said.

However, several customers on X reported that they are still experiencing internet challenges especially while surfing some apps.

Still experiencing unstable connection. I need help streaming YouTube seamlessly. It would be best if you reimbursed your customers for this @SafaricomCare

— EZ (@clasiwin) May 16, 2024

Google apps/services still aren’t working well, been trying to load 1 YouTube video for over 5 minutes now

— Sandra (@_isige) May 16, 2024

It's still not stable

— Danny Gonah (@Danny_Gonah) May 16, 2024

On Wednesday, communications company Vodacom Tanzania PLC which was also affected by the undersea cable cut, announced that they had also restored full network in the region.

The company said they would refund all of their customers who were unable to use their bundles.

“After the countrywide internet service disruption, Vodacom Tanzania is pleased to announce that our network is fully restored following the recent undersea cable cut. We understand how frustrating this experience must have been, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused you,” read the notice.

“We are dedicated to ensuring you have reliable connectivity. Thank you for placing your trust in us to keep you connected.”

Internet users in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda reported different levels of disruption between Sunday and Monday following cuts to two submarine cables, East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) and Seacom.

The breaks also caused disruptions in Mozambique, Malawi, and Madagascar, according to Cloudflare, a US internet data company.

Safaricom’s statement was followed by an assurance from the Kenya Communications Authority on Thursday explaining to Kenyans that internet restoration is back to near normal. Director General of the authority David Mugonyi said that full restoration is on the way as the backlog generated by the outage might take time to clear.

“While this has led to near normal services, the backlog generated by the outage might take some time to clear,” said Mugonyi.

Mugonyi appreciated efforts by mobile network operators and internet service providers in the country to restore internet services and keep the country connected through the acquisition of additional capacity in other undersea fibre cables.