Both Orange and MTN, the country’s two largest mobile network operators, experienced outages.
The disruptions began on Wednesday evening, March 13th, when MTN reported issues with several submarine cables. This impacted their internet service for over 17 million customers. In an attempt to find a solution, MTN initially connected to the Orange network.
However, by Thursday morning, March 14th, Orange itself was experiencing internet problems due to separate submarine cable issues. Thankfully, Orange was able to restore service by around 6pm that evening. MTN’s internet was partially restored later in the evening.
The only mobile network provider unaffected was Moov Africa, which allowed them to continue offering internet access. This led to a surge in customers visiting Moov Africa stores to purchase new SIM cards or Wi-Fi devices.
The submarine cable problems also impacted internet connectivity in other African countries, including Liberia, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, and Lesotho.