MainOne, a major undersea cable company affected by recent service disruptions due to multiple cable cuts, has estimated that it could take between two and three weeks to repair the damaged portions of the cable. The company stated that some form of seismic activity on the seabed caused the break to the cable.
Preliminary findings and further investigations revealed that the fault occurred due to an external incident that resulted in a cut on the submarine cable system, in the Atlantic Ocean offshore Cote D’Ivoire along the coast of West Africa. MainOne has a maintenance agreement with Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement (ACMA) to provide repair services for the submarine cable.
The repair process involves identifying and assigning a vessel, retrieving the necessary spares required for repair, sailing to the fault location to conduct the repair work, and then splicing the affected section of the submarine cable back together. This process might take one to two weeks for repairs, with an additional two to three weeks of transit time required for the vessel to pick up the spares and travel from Europe to West Africa once mobilized.
MainOne noted that most submarine cable faults occur as a result of human activities such as fishing and anchoring in shallow waters near shore, natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and equipment failure. Given the distance from land and the cable depth of about 3 km at the point of fault, any human activity such as ship anchors, fishing, or drilling has been ruled out. The company believes that some form of seismic activity on the seabed resulted in the break to the cable, but more data will be obtained during the repair exercise. The company also stated that intentional sabotage is highly unlikely.
