It’s been a tough week for South Africa’s ISPs. With two of the submarine cables that connect South Africa to Europe going down and impacting connectivity across the country, many ISPs have been scrambling to try to mitigate the impact of the cable breaks.
Various media outlets have reported on the measures being taken, which range from using alternative cables and routes to using new backhaul suppliers. Many ISPs have upgraded their national long-distance services from Cape Town to Johannesburg so they can consume more from Johannesburg to help alleviate congestion and slow speeds – but customers have still felt the impact of the severe service degradation caused by the breaks in Wacs and Sat-3.
Three years later, most South African ISPs are once again having to scramble to meet their service-level agreements. This is because very few are using a network that has been designed for failure, despite the fact that history has proved that undersea cables can break – and will break.