Business Activities Grounded as Sat-3 Shuts Down

Internet service delivery in the country has drop significantly since last week, no thanks to the shutting of under sea cable service, South Atlantic Terminal 111 (SAT-3) cable of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited by its staff Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can reveal.
It was gathered that staff of Nitel who has embarked on strike since last week shut down operations of services of the Sat-3 which has affected internet service providers who rely on the under sea cable to deliver service.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations revealed that the ISPs have congested their subscribers on the alternative very small aperture terminal (Vsat) link to deliver service which has adversely affected the availability of internet and thereby drastically reduce business activities of subscribers.
The striking workers have also shut down operations of Nigeria Internet Exchange Point whose office is located in the same of building with Sat-3. This has also compounded the situation as most ISPs that are connected to the exchange are finding it difficult to exchange local traffic.
The  SAT-3 which has ultimate capacity of 120 Gps is linked to Nigeria through Nitel and runs from South Africa to Portugal with landing points in Angola, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Canary Islands, and Spain.
SAT-3 cable provides a low-cost port for IP connectivity to the rest of the world and will facilitate the building of a local Internet exchange in Nigeria which is vital to increase efficiency and reduce cost of internet traffic originating and terminating within Nigeria and other neighboring regions. This is key to energizing Nigeria’s telecom revolution.
However, the incessant disruption of service of Sat-3 and the monopolistic approach to its management by Nitel have made other telecommunications companies such as Globacom and Main One cable to begin building their own under sea cable project as alternative aimed at reducing cost of bandwidth and making it available.
The efficient use of SAT 3 will spur the image of Nigeria internationally and bring Nigeria in the league of the rest of the world enabling Nigeria to participate in this era of third generation (3G) technology where there is apparent convergence of data, voice and video services. These services have a high demand on bandwidth and this is where the high capacity that SAT 3 provides comes to play.