Internet disruption: CA, Safaricom partner to increase capacity

The Communications Authority of Kenya says they are working with mobile network operators and internet service providers to keep the country connected through the acquisition of additional capacity.

In a statement signed by the authority’s Director General David Mugonyi, mobile network operators and internet service providers have minimised service interruption by acquiring additional capacity in other undersea fibre cables.

The country’s largest telecoms operator Safaricom has already announced that it has resumed full network capacity.

In a statement by the CEO Peter Ndegwa, the firm says it has resumed full network capacity and stability after acquiring additional capacity from other providers.

“We are happy that through our providers we have gotten additional capacity fairly quickly. Our engineers have been able to rebalance traffic on reminding cables to ensure the country is connected, and can make roaming, voice calls,” said Safaricom Technology Team Lead, George Njuguna.

The firm has apologised to customers on its network who may have experienced slower-than-expected speeds since Sunday. 

“We lost 200 gigabytes on the 2 cables. Each curling 100 going down south…as at now, we are back to our high capacity of 600 GB. People who have not made such investments found themselves without capacity…886…Right now we are back to where we were Sunday morning and once the repairs are done on 23rd May off the coast of South Africa and Mozambique, we are going to see a resumption of even more capacity,” Njuguna added.

With a robust infrastructure, Safaricom says it will continue to engage all the relevant partners as it monitors progress in the high seas, to ensure its 42 million subscribers remain connected.

Since Sunday internet users in Kenya and other East Africans have been subjected to poor connectivity following damage to undersea cables at Mtunzini that connect the region to the rest of the world through South Africa.