Internet outage explained
Many Vodacom, Telkom ADSL and Verizon Business customers experienced network problems yesterday from around 14:00. Users typically experienced high latency, packet loss and in some cases service unavailability.
Vodacom confirmed the network problems, saying that it experienced a failure of transmission services in some areas of Gauteng, which has had a negative impact on its data network.
These network problems affected Internet access and had some impact on other voice and data services from Vodacom.
“Our transmission network provider; Telkom, has been able to re-route some traffic, however subscribers could still experience a degraded service until the Telkom transmission network is fully restored,” said Vodacom’s Dot Field at around 18:00 yesterday.
During the same period peering issues between SAIX and Verizon Business meant that all Johannesburg traffic was being routed via Cape Town, causing high latency and packet loss.
Telkom explains
Telkom explained that a fibre optic cable break was the cause of the service disruption.
"Telkom confirms that the breakage of four optic fibre cables and one copper cable, which were damaged by contractors doing work for another entity, is the cause of service disruption to customers in the greater Sandton/Benmore Gardens area,” said Telkom.
“The break that occurred at 13:50 this afternoon was immediately detected by the company’s network surveillance team which is based at Telkom’s National Network Operations Centre (NNOC) in Centurion. Telkom’s Core Network Maintenance personnel were dispatched shortly thereafter and are currently on site and attending to the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure.”
While physical repair of the broken fibre optic cables is currently underway, Telkom specialists are re-routing affected voice and data traffic to alternate fibre routes, away from the breakage.
“Services will be restored to normal progressively after the fibre rehabilitation is completed. The company apologises to all affected customers for the disruption caused by the breakage and endeavours to restore services as expeditiously as possible,” Telkom concluded.
Loading ...