Value of SEACOM redundancy shown
A SAT-3 cable failure yesterday left numerous Internet users in South Africa without international connectivity. Telkom said that the problem occurred while preparing for planned work by the SAT-3 consortium. “While this preparatory work was being conducted between Accra and Abijan, failure in the branching units resulted in a longer than anticipated downtime,” Telkom said in a media statement.
The SAT-3 downtime however did not have an impact on Neotel’s Internet customers, partly because of their redundant SEACOM access. According to Dr. Angus Hay, Neotel’s Executive Head of Technology, Neotel Internet customers including local Internet Service Providers, businesses, and consumers were unaffected, because of Neotel’s policy of using multiple cables.
“The break of SAT-3 cable had no impact on our Internet customers, since services simply shifted to other cables. We make use of other cables such as SAFE, which runs from Durban to India and the Fast East, and particularly SEACOM, from north of Durban to East Africa, Asia and Europe, ensuring that Neotel customers are always connected to the rest of the world and the entire Internet,” says Dr. Hay.
“Our involvement in all the cable systems means that we can provide customers with fast, cost-effective and reliable international connectivity,” he says. “Neotel is also a member of the consortium building the Eastern African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), which will be operational and add more capacity in July 2010, providing our customers with cost-effective, reliable global Internet access.”
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