There was general consternation by internet users in The Gambia earlier this week over a network slowdown and eventual outage which lasted for more than four hours on Tuesday.
The internet meltdown was apparently blamed on an Indian company contracted by the National Water and Electricity Company to lay pipes as part of a major utility improvement projects being undertaken in relation to an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation conference in Banjul next year.
Workers digging to install water infrastructure had mistakenly severed underground cables linked to the so-called ACE submarine line connecting The Gambia and the rest of West Africa to Europe and the rest of the world.
Telephone calls and monetary transactions with the outside world were adversely affected, incurring financial losses running into tens of millions of dalasi for financial institutions.
Work for most businesses including money transfer bureaus was at a standstill for much of Tuesday and began to slowly return to normalcy by the evening of the same day after an alternative was found as repair works on the cables got underway.
The latest internet blackout came barely a week after a similar situation which lasted for several days.
Main internet service provider Gambia Telecommunication Company or GAMTEL has written to NAWEC to account for the revenue losses during the course of the internet outage.
WN/as/APA