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The Citizen
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Experiencing slow internet connectivity? This is why
The cable system runs from Portugal to a landing station at Yzerfontein, in the Western Cape. It has a design capacity of 14.5Tbps. South Africans have been experiencing slow internet connectivity following repairs to the West Africa Cable System (WACS). Maintenance on Wacs started at 2am on Sunday, 1 June, and is scheduled to be completed by 8am on June 16, 2025. Wacs The Wacs is a 1 4530km submarine cable system carrying internet traffic and connecting 15 countries, starting from South Africa and ending in London. It is also a key link between South Africa and the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), which lands in Angola. The cable system runs from Portugal to a landing station at Yzerfontein, in the Western Cape. It has a design capacity of 14.5Tbps. ALSO READ: Undersea cables in Baltic Sea cut, Germany and Finland fear sabotage Repairs During maintenance and repairs, the affected stretch of WACS is offline, meaning no data traffic can flow through it, resulting in lethargic internet connectivity. While many Internet providers in South Africa have sufficient backup capacity for their customers to mitigate the impact of the outage, some have been severely affected, according to My Broadband. 'WACS emergency maintenance activity is planned to resolve a low voltage issue affecting both Power Supply Units on the Swakopmund Power Feeding Equipment,' a recent status notice said. 'The issue has been traced to a faulty Branching Unit in Namibia. As a result, the replacement of the faulty Branching Unit in Namibia is required to restore normal operation.' Offline WACS will be offline for the duration of the maintenance, and the dates are subject to change depending on weather conditions. Openserve global carrier business development and operations specialist Robert Kraai reported that a repair ship recovered the faulty branching unit off the coast of Namibia. 'WACS repairs are currently underway as I closely monitor the progress. The faulty Branching Unit(BU)is now recovered. Confirmation of good cable condition is received through Wacs Rep on board, this then confirms the BU to be the faulty equipment. Kraai said the next step was to replace the faulty unit with a new one and then test the replacement to confirm it was working. ALSO READ: Study finds South Africa's 5G network lagging compared to other countries
The South African
05-06-2025
- The South African
Here's why your INTERNET may be slow this week
Parts of South Africa are grappling with slower internet speeds this week as a major international undersea data cable – the West Africa Cable System (WACS) – undergoes emergency repairs off the coast of Namibia. The 14 500km fibre-optic link, which connects South Africa to Europe via Portugal, went offline on Sunday, 1 June, after a critical fault was detected in a branching unit near Swakopmund. The damaged component – a branching unit which reroutes data signals – has been retrieved by a deep-sea cable repair ship. Engineers are now working to install a replacement and conduct tests to restore connectivity between Yzerfontein and Lisbon, a crucial handover hub for European internet traffic. 'We've verified the rest of the cable is intact. The next step is to install the new unit and perform a full signal test,' said Robert Kraai, co-chair of the WACS operations committee. Western Cape users are feeling the brunt of the outage, with reports of sluggish browsing and interrupted video streaming. users are of the outage, with reports of sluggish browsing and interrupted video streaming. Gauteng and northern regions, however, are largely unaffected due to their reliance on East Coast alternatives like Seacom and EASSy. 'Many networks in the Western Cape lean heavily on WACS,' said local ISP Cool Ideas. 'That makes this kind of outage particularly disruptive in the region.' Repairs are expected to continue until at least 16 June, but experts stress that sea conditions could impact the timeline. 'If the ocean cooperates, we should see service restored by the third week of June,' telecom analyst Roderick Beck noted. 'But it's the sea – anything can happen.' WACS is vital not just for basic internet access, but for high-speed data services, global content delivery, and cloud connectivity in South Africa. It also connects to the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) via Angola, making it a linchpin for regional and intercontinental traffic. The incident underscores how fragile global connectivity can be – relying on a small number of deep-sea cables, often vulnerable to faults, weather events, or physical damage. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
