What Congo Telecom’s WACS update tells customers about the backup route

Archival photograph of Île de Bréhat installing WACS off Yzerfontein, South Africa, on 24 April 2011. The photograph predates the 2026 interruption by 15 years. Kalle Pihlajasaari / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Original JPEG unchanged. Source image · CC BY-SA 3.0.

Congo Telecom expected a repair vessel to reach the West Africa Cable System incident area on 11 November, according to the operator’s 7 November update. At PING’s 11 November check, the published date was still an estimate. Arrival and repair completion remain unverified. Operator’s vessel update.

For a business that depends on the connection, the useful question is what remains available while the main route is out. An alternative route can carry traffic before the cable is fixed. To understand how a particular call or upload performed, you need observations from the connection that handled it.

What Congo Telecom says it kept working

The operator says it detected an interruption on 29 October in circuits using WACS and suspected a cut on the segment between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It says its network automatically switched traffic to backup links and retained 100% of internet capacity for the customers affected. The same notice says that, temporarily, all that backup capacity used one submarine cable. The stated capacity and the number of routes are separate things. Operator’s account of the switch.

Take the percentage as the operator’s account of the capacity available to those customers. The statement does not include readings of upload speed, delay or loss for specific customer sites. Nor does it establish what happened on other providers. A support team trying to explain a slow overseas call needs both the provider’s account of the route and observations from the affected connection.

A ship arriving is only one step

The UK cable-industry guide KIS-ORCA explains how crews typically locate the fault, recover the cable, replace damaged material, splice and test. For the October WACS fault, track the boat’s arrival, the outcome of cable tests and the return of the affected circuits as separate milestones. Subsea repair sequence.

Congo Telecom reported a separate WACS incident in September between Matombi and Muanda. It said the vessel for that repair reached the area on 21 September, then reported restoration on 1 October. Neither update establishes a timeline for the interruption reported on 29 October. September account · October restoration notice for the earlier fault.

Ask for a route check and keep a site log

If your team in Pointe-Noire works with colleagues in the UK, start with a specific symptom. Record when the call or file transfer stalled, the access provider at each end, and whether another connection behaved differently. Ask the provider which circuit carried the service at the time, when it switched to backup, and whether that backup shares a physical route with other links on your contract. Don’t assume two service names mean two independent paths.

Keep local power and access issues in the log too. The Republic of the Congo’s telecom regulator, ARPCE, separately warned on 27 October that electricity and diesel constraints were disrupting communications. The regulator’s notice predates the WACS circuit interruption and describes a separate issue. An offshore repair update covers only one part of the connection. ARPCE’s energy notice.

Read PING’s guide to the economics of the African last mile.