Smile commends MainOne, Globacom over response to submarine cable cut

Against the background of the recent downtime and disruption of internet service occasioned by the cuts in submarine cable, West Africa pioneer 4G LTE broadband service provider, Smile Nigeria, has commended the Nigerian cable providers MainOne and Globacom for partnering with the company to overcome the challenge swiftly.

In a statement released in Lagos, Smile commended both MainOne and Globacom for “the relentless support both firms offered to the company to aid the quick delivery of additional capacity required during the recent WACS submarine fibre cut”.

Expressing his delight, the Group CEO of Smile Communications, Ahmad Farroukh noted “the huge demand for IP capacity from other operators in Nigeria during the unfortunate incident”.

He appreciates the commitment shown by MainOne and Globacom to make quick alternative arrangements with multiple upstream providers to accommodate the Smile telecommunications network.

The CEO of Smile Group further stated that “we should take learnings from the recent WACS and SAT3 cable cuts that resulted in the disruption of internet services in the country”.

In his applause to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami; Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and in achieving the National Broadband Committee objectives, Mr. Ahmad Farroukh pleaded that the Minister and the regulatory agency should facilitate an environment where all Nigerian and non-Nigerian cable providers will have active redundancy on each other so that consumers will not be impacted negatively in case of similar occurrence in the future.

‘’For example, if submarine cable X was subject to a cut, other cables existing in Nigeria should be able to carry on the lost capacity without negatively impacting the end users’’, he said.