Source: newsthemegh.com
The National Communications Authority’s (NCA) Director-General, Dr. Joe Anokye, has said that Ghana was spared a total internet outage on March 14, 2024, due to preventive actions taken by the Authority as early as 2020.
Dr. Anokye explained the situation by stating that four submarine cables—which were fortunately operating in Ghana—were disrupted, resulting in widespread internet outages in numerous nations along the West African coast that lead to South Africa.
In spite of this, MTN users only had partial internet connection, whereas AT&T customers saw no outages.
As the damaged submarine cables are being repaired, Ghana’s three mobile network operators (MNOs) have now fully restored their internet capacity.
In order to guarantee redundancy and resilience, Dr. Anokye said that the NCA had instructed MNOs to create and maintain physical cable connections with a minimum of three submarine cable providers.
All MNOs complied with this directive, which was released in April 2020.
Speaking on Sunday, March 24, 2024, at a media briefing at the Ministry of Information, Dr. Anokye emphasized the proactive interactions with stakeholders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among these efforts were guidelines to guarantee redundancy in underwater cable connections and a risk evaluation of MNO capacities.
Dr. Anokye went on to say that MNOs would have to make arrangements for a second cable leg with a nearby supplier who would not be landing in the nation.
A fifth cable landing operator, Bayobab, was also granted a license by the NCA for the 2Africa Cable. This operator is anticipated to begin operations by the fourth quarter of 2024 or earlier.
Compared to current cables, the 2Africa Cable will offer greater capacity and geographical variety with a design capacity of 180 tbps.
In addition, Dr. Anokye discussed expanding the scope of current satellite licenses to encompass broadband satellite services, thereby offering substitute possibilities for connectivity.
Dr. Anokye focused on working with business and regulators to expand inter-country terrestrial fiber in order to improve internet connectivity resilience in the future.