Voice, data services affected by undersea cable cuts restored - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that voice, data services affected by the recent undersea cable cuts have been restored, reports ITREALMS

Confirming this, the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Reuben Muoka in a press statement available to ITREALMS noted that following the disruption on March 14, 2024, which affected data and voice services due to cuts in undersea fibre optics along the coasts of Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal, have been restored.

Internet access restored in North West, South-West regions

ITRealms:

After some 94 days without access to the Internet, the government of Cameroun has restored connection to about 5 million people living in the anglophone regions of the country, reports ITRealms.

The Camerounian government, in an official statement available to ITRealms by the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said that the Northwest and Southwest Regions have been restored with Internet Connections due to the social situation in linked to the demands expressed by English-speaking lawyers' associations, extremist activists, driven by secessionist intrigues, took the opportunity to disseminate hate messages and incite violence and abuses of all sorts.

According to the Minister, at their instigation, children were molested and prevented from returning to school, men and women saw their daily activities disrupted, public and private buildings were burned, order were attacked etc.

These criminal activities, the Minister said, fall within the scope of the law, notably the one relating to the repression of acts of terrorists, have been perpetrated for the most part via social networks.

“These information and communication technologies, essential tools of economic and social progress which benefit from the constant solicitude of the Head of State, have thus unfortunately been detoured by the enemies of the republic,” Bakary said.

Also, the minister said that in such circumstances, the public authorities had an imperative duty to restore order, to ensure the security of citizens and their property, and to guarantee the functioning of administrative services.

Insisting that the government of the Republic, had to, among other security measures, to suspend Internet connections in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

“Since then, the government has not stopped constantly assessing the situation on the ground. The current situation is that the North-West and South-West Regions have been living in remarkable calm for several weeks,” part of the press statement read.

The Cameroonian people, Bakary said, is attached to the unity of the country and living together, has once again shown its great maturity.

“The important steps taken by the Government to respond favorably to the legitimate concerns of English-speaking lawyers and teachers, as well as the creation of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, of the national territory,” Bakary pointed out.

While Cameroon's friendly countries and international partners, the minister said, have rightly welcomed these efforts by the public authorities towards the settlement and easing of the crisis in the North-West and South-West Regions.

“It therefore appears that the conditions underlying the provisional suspension of the Internet in this part of the national territory have changed considerably,” Bakary said.

So, the Head of State, Mr. Paul Biya, therefore instructed the Minister in charge of Posts and Telecommunications to ask mobile operators to re-establish Internet connections in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Also, the government urged the populations of these regions to be vigilant in order to continue to block the way for the extremists, secessionists and enemies of the Republic, emphasizing that the government of the Republic reserves the right to take, as necessary, appropriate measures to prevent the Internet from being used again to incite hatred and discord between Cameroonians or to create public disorder.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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ntel restores full service @ SAT-3 submarine cable

ITRealms:

 The owners of NatCom Development & Investment Limited, trading as ntel in Nigeria has said that the West Africa Submarine Cable also known as SAT-3 cable has fully been repaired and restored for service delivery, reports ITRealms.

The Director, External Affairs, ntel, Mr. Osondu C. Nwokoro and Head, Corporate Communications, Mr. Toni Kan Onwordi, confirmed this development to ITRealms, saying that the self-acclaimed most advanced broadband LTE network has announced the successful repair and return to service of its SAT-3 submarine cable.

ITRealms recalls that SAT-3/WASC/SAFE or South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable is the longest submarine communications cable in the world with 17 landing points linking Portugal and Europe to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route.

They also quoted the chief executive officer, ntel, Mr. Kamar Abass as saying that the repair of SAT-3 is fantastic news for data-hungry consumers and corporates in need of superfast and abundant broadband carried over a robust fibre network with significant capacity and low latency.

“SAT-3’s 17 landing points and intermediate branches in-country and abroad provide for connections all the way to the Far East, thanks to our alliance with SAFE,” he said.

As said by him, potential customers of SAT-3 include Nigeria’s GSM and LTE operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), major international companies, Private Telecom Operators, Content/Hosting Operators, Infomedics/Infomatics Operators, the judiciary (for the execution of real-time on-line matters), banks and the military as well as airline operators.

He explained that SAT-3’s repair also included the cable’s physical diversion away from shipping lanes in the approach to the Port of Lagos. Stressing that in the past, the dropping and dragging of anchors by such traffic had been associated with disruptions to the cable.

“With the repaired system’s activation, the system’s Upgrade IV will also be implemented. This boosts its throughput capacity from 420Gbps to 920Gbps in the northern segments and from 340Gbps to 800Gbps in the southern segments,” he said.

Abass, further said that SAT-3 Nigeria is now positioned to better address Nigeria’s need for super-fast internet connectivity, data-hungry applications, high-quality video-on-demand and increasing social media usage, thus enhancing customer experience. Today, submarine cable systems carry more than 98 per cent of all overseas voice, data and video traffic.

He pointed out that the the return of SAT-3 is significant in many respects, noting that the submarine cable first launched in 2001, serves as the precursor for Internet access between Europe and West Africa and would take off where SAT-2 left off as it reached full capacity.

The CEO underlined the fact that SAT-2 was brought into service in the early 1990s as a replacement for the original undersea cable SAT-1 that was constructed in the 1960s, even as with Upgrade V now planned for delivery in Q4, 2016, SAT3 will surpass 1000 STM-1 mark in Q3 of 2016, thus providing even more capacity for the transformation of Nigeria’s broadband landscape.

Abass emphasized that Nigeria’s SAT-3 cable system connects to a Cable Landing Station in Central Lagos and, through a network of metro-fibre ducts, connects to multiple districts in Lagos and, through high-capacity inter-city connections expected to reach multiple cities across the country.

During 2016, ntel expects to connect hundreds of new customers to the SAT-3 system, including many who have successfully used the system in the recent past.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)  

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Defence HQ website hacked, restored, fingers APC

ITRealms:

The Defence Headquarters has affirmed the hacking of its website, which has also been restored, while industry watchers are fingering sympathisers of the main opposition, the All Progressive Congress (APC), reports ITRealms.

Reports gathered by ITRealms Friday, indicated that the website, www.defenceinfo.mil.ng was hacked in the early hours of today, Friday, January, 2015.

Reacting, the Defence Headquarters’ noted though, it’s information blog site has been restored.

A press statement signed by Major General Chris Olukolade, Director of Defence Information, was quoted as “The site was defaced at the front end. However, the hackers could not infiltrate the database of the site.”

“Preliminary investigation shows that the attack was from the end of the site’s host. One Ima Sadiq who posed as the hacker has been knocked off and normal activities on the channel has resumed.

“Apparently, the blog site was targeted because of its role as a major channel for disseminating information on military and security activities in the nation’s counter-terrorism campaign," he said.

Just as industry watchers were awash with arguments with some insisting that the said Ima Sadiq may have hacked the defence headquarters website in sympathy to the APC who recently denied.

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