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An undersea fibre optic cable which bought broadband to East Africa has been cut by ship's anchor and caused speeds in the region to plummet.
The fibre-optic cables were cut off Kenya's coast by a ship waiting to enter Mombasa. It should not have dropped anchor because it was a restricted area, but it did anyway and soon discovered why the area was restricted. It could take up to 14 days to repair according to cable owners The East African Marine Systems.
ISPs and mobile phone operators have re-routed to the Seacom link which was not damaged by the dropped anchor, but the outfits can only afford a small amount of bandwidth because of cost. Connections are expected to slow down by 20 per cent in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan's capital, Juba.
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Nick Farrell
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