By Francesca Hangeior
Contrary to the expectation that the undersea cable cut which disrupted banking and telecom services in Nigeria and some parts of Africa, will last for about two weeks more, indications are that services are almost 100 percent back.
Telecom companies in Nigeria which mostly bore the brunt of the disruption confessed to Vanguard yesterday that services were over 90 percent restored as engineers worked beyond schedules to ensure the disruption did not last more than necessary.
Chairman of the umbrella body of Nigerian telcos, Association of Licensed Telecom Operator in Nigeria, ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo, told Vanguard exclusively that whatever little disruptions experienced in the services of his members could only be as a result of backlog of congestions, occasioned by the cut.
He said: “As we speak, service is almost restored. When the problem happened almost every operator re-routed to alternative platforms and the effect of the congestion is what subscribers could be experiencing now. We have invested heavily on service restoration and I can boast that we are almost out of the challenge in terms of service restoration” he added
Confirming the position of the telcos, the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission also released a statement, through its Director Public Affairs, Mr Reuben Muoka, saying services have been restored to approximately 90 percent of peak utilization capacities.