Telkom Blames Fibre Break for Network Breakdown

South Africa’s leading telco, Telkom, has said that a fibre cable break that occurred at 8am on Tuesday knocked out big chunks of its network. The company has appealed to affected customers for patience.

The damage is affecting mobile, fixed-LTE and fibre customers on Telkom’s network in the north of Gauteng as well as Limpopo province, Rustenburg in the North West and parts of Mpumalanga.

Sipho Maseko, Telkom Group CEO
Telkom’s group CEO Sipho Maseko poses for a photograph after an interview with Reuters in Centurion, South Africa May 28, 2018. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko – RC19E559A590

“Customers on Telkom’s Internet service will experience congestion on the Telkom network,” the company said in an e-mailed statement issued at 11.25am.

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“We request your patience as our technicians make every effort to bring services back to the affected areas.”

Downdetector, a website that provides updates on problems on telecommunications carriers and Internet service provider infrastructure, showed a sharp rise in reported incidents from Telkom customers shortly before 8am. At the time of writing at midday, the problems appeared to persist

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry