NCA's proactiveness ensured Ghana's internet resilience - Dr Anokye

The Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Dr. Joe Anokye has disclosed that the reactiveness of the Authority is the reason Ghana did not experience a complete internet outage during the undersea cable disruptions on 14th March, 2024.

Some countries along the West African Coast down to South Africa experienced widespread and massive internet outages when four (4) submarine cables, which coincidentally were operational in Ghana got disrupted on the high seas leading to disruptions in data services.

During the outages, consumers on AT experienced no disruptions, while those on MTN and Telecel had minimum access to the internet.

However, all three mobile network operators (MNOs) in Ghana have now fully restored internet capacity, with ongoing repair efforts by submarine cable providers.

Addressing the media in Accra on Sunday on the disruptions, Dr Anokye noted that the NCA had been proactive since 2020 and had directed MNOs to establish and maintain physical cable connections to at least three submarine cable providers for redundancy and resilience.

He stated, “The NCA had directed MNOs to establish and maintain physical cable connections to at least three submarine cable providers for redundancy and resilience – this was back in April 2020, and all MNOs adhered to this.”

Dr Anokye revealed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Authority had a series of meetings with various stakeholders to find out what level of support they needed.

The proactive engagements and subsequent directives to MNOs contributed to Ghana not experiencing a complete internet outage on 14th March 2024.

The Director General said in one of those meetings, the NCA focused on risk assessment of mobile network operators’ capacities and their redundancies to Subsea Cable Landing Service Providers.

Subsequently, he stated, from a national emergency point of view, all MNOs were, in a letter dated 30th April 2020, directed to establish and maintain physical cable connections to at least three submarine cable companies.

He added, “Further to the above, all redundant cable connections should be capable of being lighted within 24 hours in the event of an outage on your primary links.

“It was based on this directive that AT secured a third leg of its cable provider in Nigeria, leading to they having service, with MTN also having another leg in Nigeria with some capacity that was relied on during the crisis.”